Akatarawa dresses to impress
Akatarawa Forest. It doesn’t exactly scream fashion.
Yet the 15,000 hectare park, with its old logging roads, legendary mountain bike tracks and deep valleys that people have been known to get lost in, is the unlikely setting for a chic and stylish campaign for Wellington fashion label Kowtow.
Nature As Home, shot “at home”, features the company’s first-ever plastic-free collection, with the imagery used in marketing across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the US and Canada.
The location was chosen from a list of potential “stars” – including Mt Kaukau, Percy Scenic Reserve, Tunnel Gully and Kaitoke Regional Park – because it reflected the central pillar of the collection, a signature print inspired by the Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing.
Art director Xanthe Harrison said integrating nature in such a visually overt way provided an opportunity “to ground the brand in the natural environment and celebrate the fact our garments are made from nature”.
“The Maungakotukutuku entry to Akatarawa Forest has this incredible clearing under a broad tree canopy right near the car park; it felt like the perfect set. Plus there was an open field with forested hills in the background and a stream bed that gave us a variety of landscapes to play with.”
The shoot took four hours, and largely went to plan, she said.
“Of course, as always in Wellington the weather was a consideration. We were hoping for the best, but had a wet weather plan in case we needed to reschedule.”
The two Auckland-based models were offered blankets and coats between takes.
In February two teens, who failed to return home from a walk and were reported missing on the Karapoti track, in the park, were located “safe and well” by hunters the following morning. In July 2023 two motorcyclists also spent an unscheduled night in the bush in the same area after the sun went down and conditions became too dangerous for them to ride out.