NZ Fashion Week: Industry veterans reminisce about their first runway show

The useful part

Countless people, months of work and a large chunk of change are poured into something that lasts maybe 15 minutes. Get it right and you'll be remembered forever – that's why the industry still talks about Zambesi's 2005 show at the St James Theatre, King Kapisi's Overstayer collection in 2003 and Campbell Luke's 2019 debut. I can't recall the first show I attended (it was 2008, probably) but I vividly remember how it felt to be there: a grateful interloper.

How it works

• Since those were the nascent days of the internet (Instagram didn't even exist yet), you really, really had to be there – or pick up a newspaper the next day, or magazine the following month.
• It was a pivotal time for NZFW, which launched in 2001, as well as the local industry.
• What was it like to be in the audience, behind the scenes or on the runway?
• Ngahuia Williams – model, agent, photographer I think it was… 2001 or 2002.
• I was in the early stages of my modelling career, and that would have been my first one.

Details worth keeping

New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria kicks off on Monday in Auckland. The whole thing felt glamorous and cosmopolitan. All Blacks and rock stars were plonked in the front row!