As a small business owner, I am constantly looking to other brands and fashion designers, both locally and internationally, for inspiration on how to run my business. Today I wanted to share the three New Zealand fashion brands, I most admire.
Maggie Marilyn
Maggie Hewitt, the creator of New Zealand fashion label Maggie Marilyn, has to be my ultimate girlboss crush. After studying fashion and sustainability, she was eager to begin her career in the fashion industry only to pull back the glamorous curtain of fashion and see an industry that needed fixing, and fast.
Ever since Maggie has taken bold steps to fulfill her brand purpose of using fashion to change the world. All MM garments are responsibly made in New Zealand and she provides complete transparency of all her suppliers, ensuring each adheres to a supplier code of conduct. The MM brand also champions the idea of a circular and regenerative approach to clothing, choosing fabrics that can be returned to the earth or recycled at the end of their life.
In this way, Maggie’s, choices for her brand have inspired and informed the decisions I have made when designing collections and choosing fabrics for Alyssa Lloyd.
Kate Sylvester
I got to experience first-hand the behind-the-scenes operations at Kate Sylvester when I worked for several months at their Mt Eden, Auckland HQ. One of New Zealand’s most well-loved fashion brands, Kate Sylvester takes a considered and kind approach to everything they do. Aside from their beautiful prints and designs, one of the things that really inspired me about KS was their endeavour to take a responsible and ethical approach to design, creating beautiful garments that are built to last a lifetime.
My time at KS was what finally inspired me to start my own brand.
Kate Sylvester is also one of the founding members (alongside Ruby/Liam designer Emily Miller-Sharma) of Mindful Fashion New Zealand, a collective that unites the New Zealand Fashion Industry, working to develop an industry specific programme to ensure responsible business practice and encourage positive sustainability projects to strengthen the industry.
Nisa
Wellington-based Ethical underwear (and now swimwear) label, Nisa employs women from refugee backgrounds. Founder Elisha Watson was volunteering at the Red Cross when she realised there was a lack of employment opportunities for refugee women in New Zealand, but that many of them can from sewing backgrounds. She was inspired to start Nisa to help refugee women from the bottom up — by providing them with meaningful and interesting paid work, as well as a safe place for them to practice English. Nisa now employs 12 full-time team members and has helped many families establish a home and career in New Zealand.
Nisa’s recognition that the ability to sew and produce garments is a unique and valuable skill, and their desire to create employment opportunities in this area really resonates with me. I feel strongly that sewing is a highly skilled craft that should be valued a lot more by developed countries. Alyssa Lloyd aims to be in a position to employ seamstresses in the future to help create career pathways for people with this unique skillset.
There are many more amazing New Zealand fashion designers paving the way for a more fair and ethical industry and I would love to be able to cover them all, but these three are the ones that have truly inspired me and my business.
