New Voices at NZFW: Massey’s Graduate Collections
Six emerging designers from Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts took the spotlight at New Zealand Fashion Week, presenting Graduate Collections at Auckland’s Shed 10 this August. The showcase featured work from three 2023 and three 2024 Bachelor of Design (Hons, First Class) graduates from Massey’s Fashion School.
Programme leader Sue Prescott says NZFW marks “a moment of transition from education to industry.” It allows them to present original ideas to a national audience, engage directly with media and industry professionals, and test how their design thinking resonates beyond the university context. "It’s also a validation of their creative voice within Aotearoa’s wider fashion narrative, contributing fresh perspectives that reflect the next generation of design in New Zealand," she adds.
Breaking into the fashion industry is challenging, Sue notes, and NZFW offers “a rare and meaningful foothold”, building confidence, forging connections with people who value their work, and affirming that each graduate’s creative voice has a place in the wider fashion world.
Vince Ropitini: The art of passive resistance on the NZFW runway
Photo credit: top Felix Jackson, bottom Radlab
Vince Ropitini (Taranaki, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāruahinerangi me Whakatōhea) presented his graduating collection, The Art of Passive Resistance, at NZ Fashion Week’s Graduate Collections show. The work is inspired by Parihaka, incorporating Māori design principles and referencing attributes found in contemporary Māori art.
“My design practice is rooted in cultural expression. Designing through a lens that reflects mātauranga Māori is essential. It allows us to preserve customary knowledge while also innovating – imagining the future of our communities through a Māori worldview,” Vince says.
Vince graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Design (First Class Honours) in Fashion Design. At Massey, he received several accolades, including the Rembrandt Award for Excellence in Tailoring and the Massey University Māori Scholar Award.
Vince chose Massey after visiting campus for Open Day. “I was just in awe of the old museum building, and it felt inviting and creative. Looking back, I made the right choice.” He credits the university’s support network: “I really appreciated the Māori support team and how they encouraged creatives and designers to learn more about the culture and bring it to light in new ways. That was very inspiring.”
Showing at NZFW was a milestone. Vince shares, “It means a lot. It’s very special to return to New Zealand and show my work, a real full-circle moment and to showcase Te Ao Māori and Māori artistry on a national stage. It was very fun.”
Now based in Melbourne, Vince says the week has sparked fresh momentum: “Following this week, I feel very inspired. On my return, I’ll be creating a new collection, continuing to evolve and to show Te Ao Māori and contemporary Māori arts in fashion.”
Quinn Kueppers: Dauerhaft, enduring against conformity
Photo credit: bottom left Annupam, bottom right Juliet Bogue
Dauerhaft (meaning “enduring” in German) explores the tension between authoritarianism and queer self-expression. The idea for this project was born from a visit to a former Stasi prison in eastern Germany. Through researching queer and alternative experiences under the authoritarian regime of East Germany and exploring his own queer and German whakapapa, Quinn has designed a collection which embodies a certain resistance to conformity. In an ever more politically unpredictable world, he hopes to highlight and further encourage queer subversion and self-expression in the face of adversity.
Originally from Christchurch, Quinn now lives in Wellington. He chose Massey for a mix of reasons: “I really wanted to move to Wellington. I’d researched into the universities that offered fashion, and Massey just seemed like it had a really good programme.”
A third-year tailoring paper proved pivotal. “We had to choose a brand and design a suit in their style. I really loved that paper.” The project, he says, “built some of the learning building blocks” for Dauerhaft: “This collection is very tailored, and I learned a lot of those skills in that third-year paper, my favourite part of the whole four years.”
Showing at the NZFW Graduate Collections meant a great deal. “It’s really special, and I’m really grateful and excited to be showing here. I’m always second-guessing my work, so it gave me a lot of confidence knowing I could show here. It’s one of the best platforms in New Zealand to show fashion; it means the world. It’s an honour.”
He’s quick to acknowledge support. “Definitely my parents. They’ve always been amazing. In the fourth year, when the degree gets really difficult, they were a great support. I was always on the phone with them.”
Quinn is working at The Fabric Store in Wellington, learning about different fabric types. He’s hoping to find work or some study in Germany, where his family’s from.
Tayla Stewart: Take Stock at NZFW
Take Stock is a thoughtfully crafted slow fashion collection by Tayla Stewart. Take Stock honours the resilience and mental health challenges faced by New Zealanders in the agricultural sector. Design concepts include subtle paddock-outlines derived from topographic maps symbolising the farm’s physical boundaries, spaces of work, home, and often, isolation. Visually rich and emotionally resonant, the collection invites reflection on the intersection of fashion, identity, and mental wellbeing.
Ahead of the show, Tayla said, “I’m really excited. This is my first runway show since leaving Massey.”
Raised on dairy farms in the South Waikato, Tayla moved to Massey to study fashion design, graduating in 2023. She’s now “working as a bridal machinist for an international company in Auckland, making wedding dresses every day.”
Massey appealed for its breadth and support. Tayla says, “I really loved the fashion course they provided, so many opportunities to learn different skills and techniques. The lecturers and the support system are just absolutely incredible.” Those lecturers were pivotal in her final year: “They really pushed me to my boundaries and made me go down a creative route I wouldn’t have taken on my own.”
Showing Take Stock at NZFW is personal. “I have my entire family coming to support me, and my collection is based on a family member, so it’s really special. Also, having amazing fellow students around is really inspiring.”
Niamh Bilsborough: Motherland, blurring the line between body and landscape
Photos taken by Eve Hampson
Niamh Bilsborough’s collection Motherland was inspired by a visit to her ancestral homeland, Scotland. Drawing on biblical references to Eve and traditional hunting practices, the collection reflects on how both women and the environment have been subject to systems of control under the patriarchy. As the garments become increasingly overrun with moss they blur the boundary between body and landscape, imagining a world where women reclaim their connection to nature.
Niamh is originally from Auckland and chose Massey after a campus visit. “I loved the campus. I loved the old museum building. I loved Wellington City. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. Once I saw Massey, I don’t think I could go anywhere else.”
A semester exchange broadened her practice. “I went on an exchange to Nottingham, it was really valuable. I learned a lot about myself and confidence, and being able to bring that back to my final year to do a full collection was really helpful.” Back on campus, the studio community mattered: “Our class was really close-knit. We looked after each other, and we’d have shared dinners at university when we were staying late. That was one of the highlights.”
Asked what having her design showing at NZFW means to her, Niamh traces it back to Scotland. “It’s based on my trip to Scotland. I visited the Isle of Skye and felt a real connection to this place. I started thinking about women’s connection to nature, the collection is my understanding of that connection, and it evolves as the collection continues. She becomes more engrossed with nature. Sharing this journey through my work feels deeply full circle. I volunteered at NZFW in high school, it was my first real experience of the fashion industry, and I remember how exciting it was just to be part of it. To now be showcasing a collection that holds so much meaning for me on that very platform feels incredibly momentous.”
Moments before the runway, she admitted with tears in her eyes, “really emotional and excited!”
What’s next? Post-grad study is on her mind. “I’ve been thinking about doing a Master's. I loved learning. I loved the process of researching and writing. I really miss that about uni.”
Finn Mora-Hill: “In over our heads” at NZFW
Finn Mora-Hill has founded a label, Fringes, which is grounded in workwear references and silhouettes, repurposed to reflect the realities of a younger generation navigating unstable work, fractured identities, and the weight of expectations. His NZFW collection, “In over our heads”, is an exploration of texture and perception, looking at the journey of young professionals coming out of the education system and into the workforce, exploring the contrast of dress codes of these two worlds.
Finn says the decision to study at Massey clicked when he visited Wellington. After visiting a couple of universities in Auckland, he flew down to Wellington to check it out. “I fell in love with the city and the space that we were working in… Once I saw the buildings and just the infrastructure. Very grand for the fashion building. I absolutely loved it, as well as the lecturers and the people. It was a great experience.”
Massey played a formative role in Finn’s approach to making. “I was exposed to digital pattern making, which is what I use all the time now, pretty much all I use, specifically my honours year, was good. The infrastructure we had, and the feedback and allowing us to really thrive in our space was awesome.”
Showing at NZFW carried deep personal meaning for him. “I didn’t actually graduate; I failed high school. I made myself a promise that I would show at Fashion Week with my grad collection. A five-year-long promise that’s now coming to fruition is cool! This isn’t actually my grad collection, it’s different, but I was allowed to show it. That’s what it means to me the most.”
Today, Finn is growing Fringes while working across the industry. He says, “Now, I run my label full-time, and I do a little bit of contract pattern-making on the side. I run fashion shows with a company called Ahua. We do that twice a year, around 16 shows each season, and I’m stocked in a couple of stores around Auckland.”
Nancy Ruck: BRAND NEW ME
As part of her degree, Nancy Ruck developed BRAND NEW ME, an identity crisis moonlighting as a six-look graduate collection. Her designs interrogate and parody the entanglement of creativity, selfhood, and market forces under neoliberal capitalism, exploring creative identity as both product and performance through tongue-in-cheek, immersive fashion.