Expert Eye: MiroModa Awards Showcase

A model wears a creation by Shane Hansen. Photo / Getty Images

A tribute to Sir Howard Morrison began the Miromoda show of designers represented by the Indigenous Maori Fashion Apparel Board this morning.

Some in the Big Tent who hadn't heard the sad news let out a gasp as organisers made the announcement.

The dedication was also extended to another towering figure of Maoridom, Dame Diggeress Te Kanawa, the renowned weaver, who passed away earlier this year.

A moody beginning including operatic renditions of Tarakihi in Te Reo, Miromoda sets out to promote Maori talent and eight designers were included in the group show of capsule collections.

Those that worked best incorporated indigenous ideas into wearable clothes.

The All Blacks, or the Warriors really, shoud give Wiremu Barriball a call. His Tu Ake line is made for built young men. Jeans with traditional Maori screenprint designs were twinned with athletic skivvies with the same moko-look patterns.

His mission statement is to utlilise fashion trends to promote Maori culture.

"Keep our rangatahi (youth) engaged in their culture while providing them with a gateway to be exposed to the traditional art-forms and culture that inspire Tu Ake."

He has yet to find a retail outlet, but deserves one.

I'd also like to be able to pick up one of Shane Hansen's T-shirts, with a cute Tui print. Less tedious than so many touristy Aotearoa-emblazoned items. The word was admittedly woven into some of the prints, but they worked, as did Bianca Walford Collier's tiki designs.

Interesting ideas were at play, but not fully worked through in the menswear at Rerehau & Tutina, where men's long coats with mandarin-style collars were tied obi-style and trimmed with panels that had Maori and tapa-print detailing.

Keri Wanoa mixed showed a feathered mini and a latticed leather sleeve that reminded of a fishing net.

Samara Vercoe gave a 20s twist to washed silks in moody blues and Kiri Nathan also used feather trim on vintage-look gowns, an at times clumsy combination.

The red volcanic colours of the Central Plateau inspired Junette Ward and Liz Adams, whose used natural fibre fabrics and colours to produce wearable, easy pieces.

Kia kaha Aotearoa kakahu (clothing).