Lara Worthington photographed in New York for Emma Lewisham. Photography / Alex Nataf. Hair / Ward. Skin / Benjamin Puckey. Production / Bridge Artists, Patrick Devlin, Liam Sharma
Lara Worthington photographed in New York for Emma Lewisham. Photography / Alex Nataf. Hair / Ward. Skin / Benjamin Puckey. Production / Bridge Artists, Patrick Devlin, Liam Sharma
One of New Zealand's beauty brands has announced their first-ever ambassador - and it's someone best known for promoting Australia.
Lara Worthington has been signed up as the official face of much-hyped New Zealand beauty brand Emma Lewisham, and is the cover star of today's issue of Viva Magazine.
Even after almost two decades in the public eye, Lara's large fan base remains, and the model and entrepreneur has more than one million followers on Instagram. The former Miss Bingle rose to fame in a Tourism Australia ad in 2006 when she eagerly quipped: "Where the bloody hell are ya?".
On today's episode of Viva Talks, commercial editor Emma Gleason, fashion and creative director Dan Ahwa, and beauty editor Ash Commetti discuss Worthington's influence.
Cometti, who interviewed Worthington for the cover, said she was initially surprised by Emma Lewisham picking an Australian to push their brand.
"It was interesting while speaking to Lara, she did remind me of Emma in a lot of ways in terms of her passion for the environment especially, and how much of a savvy businesswoman she is.
"I think they naturally bonded over both being entrepreneurs, both having this passion for sustainability and circularity, so I can see how they both became fast friends."
She said that Worthington has a gravitational pull that is hard to beat, despite the immense talent of New Zealand ambassadors.
Signing Lara isn't the only big news this week for Emma Lewisham, which is also available at Mecca stores nationwide from today.
NZME has partnered with Liam to send the pattern brand newsprint reel ends. Photo / NZME
Meanwhile, also in today's issue of Viva, local fashion brand Liam is launching its new collection of paper patterns available from today. Its popular patterns allow fashion fans to recreate its designs at home, to keep and pass on.
Embracing circular solutions Liam has taken its commitment to slow and sustainable fashion to a new level with its aptly named "operation haute off the press", sourcing waste paper from NZME newspaper reel ends to print its patterns - utilising leftovers that would otherwise be sent to recycling.
It's a full-circle solution that Liam general manager Emily Miller-Sharma has been working on for more than a year, working closely with the Viva team and NZME to help facilitate this exciting new take on circularity.
She told Viva Talks that the collaboration was inspired after lockdown caused some paper mills to close.
"I had been really fixated on only using New Zealand milled paper for patterns. Obviously there are many factors and outcomes of that mill, but for us it meant that New Zealand-made paper supply was really upsetting."
The scarcity meant that a new solution is better for the environment and more align with what she wanted to achieve.
"The outcome of using NZME's offcuts is a better solution than using newly milled New Zealand paper."
It's a full circle moment for Miller-Sharma, as she made patterns by lying on newsprint and drawing a line around herself and cutting it out.
To help usher in its new collection, available from today - in all Ruby stores and online at Liampatterns.com and Rubynz.com - pick up a copy of Viva to find your free Liam pattern to cut out and keep.
Listen to the podcast above, or read more about these topics in this week's copy of Viva. Find more Viva content at viva.co.nz
• Viva Talks is a weekly fashion, beauty and culture podcast from the team behind Viva, New Zealand's top fashion magazine. New episodes are available to listen to every Wednesday from 5am.
