Napier-based designer Misty Ratima is to showcase a collection of her garments at New Zealand Fashion week after being named the supreme winner of the indigenous Maori design competition Miromoda.
Misty was invited to enter garments in the nationwide competition for Maori fashion designers staged at Pataka Art + Museum in Porirua last weekend. Her win now takes her to New Zealand Fashion Week, where she will showcase eight looks in front of an 800-plus audience.
Anticipating her success, she has already completed her collection for the biggest event in this country's sartorial calendar, to be held in Auckland from August 28 to September 3.
"It's been seven years in the making," Misty says of her success at Miromoda. "I watched the 2010 show and wanted to design Maori fashion. I was living in Auckland at that time and returned to Hawke's Bay.
"Since then I've been on a learning journey at EIT, studying te reo Maori and Maoritanga, fashion design and visual arts and design. When I complete my second degree at the end of the year, I hope to launch my own fashion label called Te Kohu."