Sustainable solutions
Pania Greenaway is a zero-waste designer offering a contemporary take on traditional Ma¯ ori design.
After graduating from Massey University’s fashion school, the designer of Tainui and
Tu¯ wharetoa descent made her debut at the Miromoda indigenous fashion festival last year, sending a collection of frayed denim designs down the catwalk, which told a story of a fragile ecosystem. Greenaway has always loved making her own clothes, and left her hairdressing career to study fashion as a mature student.
When we meet, she has not long returned from London, the only New Zealand designer to showcase her range as part of the London Pacific Fashion Collective. There, she joined a handful of fashion designers from Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, showing garments that she says are contemporary pieces inspired by ‘‘the rich visual language of Ma¯ ori culture’’.
Other ideas inspire her too. Greenaway loves to travel, and she believes in astrology.
‘‘Our industry is so small, so to start a brand, I had to think, ‘Is there room for this’?’’
But she likes the idea of raising awareness about environmental issues through fashion, and says that in traditional times indigenous cultures such as Mexican Indians and Ma¯ ori used every scrap of material or fibre when making clothes.
‘‘They never had waste. They would fashion something and shape a garment to the body so there was no waste. So I thought, ‘how can we do that in a contemporary way?’.’’
She puts every bit of fabric to use, while also practising zerowaste pattern making. That philosophy is in every garment, which she designs to be worn for casual and coutere wear.
Currently selling online, she says: ‘‘My idea is always, how can we take one piece and use it in a multitude of ways?’’
Inter-generational and versatile
Amy Dunn often raided her mother’s wardrobe as a teen, and today she designs intergenerational garments they can both wear.
The 27-year-old graduated from Otago Polytechnic last year, launching her self-titled label at Dunedin iD Fashion Week. Since August, she has been selling her designs at The Collective in Christchurch.
Dunn’s minimalist garments are a nod to slow fashion, and as the manager of Dunedin’s The Fabric Store, she also chooses natural fibre materials for her designs.
‘‘The idea is that they are timeless and easy to wear. I like clothes like that myself. I’ve got a couple of designs that can look completely different just by tying them differently or wearing them differently, so you can change the look the next day.’’
To some extent, Dunn fits a Dunedin aesthetic. Her designs can be draped and layered – long tops flowing with pants beneath, for example. And while Dunedin is the home of black noir – a colour she favours in her own wardrobe – every black garment comes with a colour option too.
When she designs a collection, Dunn sits down with her mother, Suzette Hunter, to get ideas. Her mother and grandmother both sewed their own clothes, and Dunn caught the dressmaking bug at a young age. Now, she makes her own clothes or buys vintage.
Dunn is easily bored with clothes, so much so that when she designs a garment she thinks of different ways it can be worn.
But the designer has no ambition to go big, and likes the idea of running a boutique label.
‘‘I’m not a big showy person. I’m quite shy, I guess.’’