It’s been a busy six months for the team at Viva Premium. Here we take a look back at the biggest stories that have demanded our attention since the New Year.
Rugby jerseys, food truck kitchens, blue eyeshadow, plastic-free clothing, mental health awareness, the cost of weddings, mountain-topping harvests and
At Viva Premium, our coverage is wide-ranging and sometimes a little head-spinning. To mark our arrival at the middle of the year (already?!), we’re taking a look back at some of the projects and articles that have captured our hearts and minds.
Fashion
“New Zealand’s roster of heritage brands is few and far between, but only one can lay claim to dressing the first Māori Battalion, rugby legend Jonah Lomu and Jason Segel on How I Met Your Mother in one breath,” writes creative and fashion director Dan Ahwa.
In this piece, as local brand Canterbury marks 120 years in business, Dan considers the long history of its clothing, from the iconic “stubbies” to the “Uglies” jersey collection. He also speaks to Tom Gould, the director behind the 120th anniversary film, who highlights an interest in the nostalgia that surrounds Canterbury.
“Reliving that precious footage of the Māori Battalion arriving home wearing uniforms made by Canterbury (Lane Walker Rudkin), to Jonah Lomu in his first All Blacks try or Mal Meninga holding the Winfield Cup. All of these moments spark memories for people that take you back to a time in your life. I wanted to ignite that feeling for people again.”
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Advertise with NZME.On the ground at Polyfest this year, Dan Ahwa noted a shared sentiment among the crowd.
“Several of the performers I spoke to on the day shared mixed emotions; some only mere minutes before walking on to the stage to perform to family, friends and judges. The overall mood was one combined with nervousness and pride.”
In this edition of Viva Street Style, Dan documented the detailed ensembles donned by various performers. Above, Jana Taakitao, the leader of the Tongan group from Baradene College, wears an embellished black tapa cloth dress known as teunga kakala, adorned with shells and leaves.
So far in this series, Ahwa and award-winning photojournalist Dean Purcell have also covered the looks of attendees at Pasifika Festival 2024 and Ōamaru’s Steampunk Festival.
In January, Wellington-based brand Kowtow marked a milestone moment, releasing its first plastic-free collection.
Writer Julia Gessler visited Kowtow’s Wellington showroom as the brand was sowing seeds to cement its status as one of New Zealand’s most innovative fashion labels. In the story, Julia considers the clothing of the collection, which Gosia Piatek says is rooted in the idea of being at home in nature.
“The clothes are beautiful, a push-pull of play and pragmatism (heavy on the pragmatism). You dance in them, dash in them, in a believable way. And then there’s that wonderful straight-from-the-earth exuberance. A khaki jacket with a just-so boxiness. A speckled print that emulates light softly leaking through the trees, or komorebi. An exaggeratedly draped trouser that’s so vivid that it’s like green for beginners.”
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At the beginning of June, Dan Ahwa travelled to Ōamaru to capture the annual Steampunk NZ Festival (the biggest gathering of the subculture in the Southern Hemisphere). The fashion director, noting he’s seeking a wallflower orientation and has come unintentionally unprepared, catalogues his sartorial entrance.
“I arrived at one of its scheduled events to interview its founding forefather, Iain Clark aka Agent Darling at the ‘League of Victorian Imagineers’ Mess Dinner — dressed in a Huffer anorak, jeans and a pair of hiking boots. On my head was not a bowler hat but my lucky Roger Federer cap.”
Clark’s response?
“Look, mate, I hope you’re coming to the other ball tomorrow night with something to wear because you really do stick out like a sore thumb.”
Burned out by fast fashion, multimedia journalist Madeleine Crutchley took the sewing machine into her own hands. The self-confessed “total sewing novice” tries to make clothes using patterns from local brands, with various degrees of difficulty.
“I start bold, acquiring a pattern to make a pair of trousers. When I open it, I’m floored. If this is how you make one pair of trousers, how did we ever make it to the moon?”
This test drive is part of our larger focus on sustainable fashion (which has also included local manufacturing, secondhand shopping and environmentally conscious entrepreneurs).
Food & Drink
Homegrown has always been part of Sherwood’s story but executive chef Chris Scott’s newest garden is literally next level. Writer Kim Knight pays a visit as the kitchen begins an alpine harvest.
“At Sherwood, if the chefs lose a customer between entree and mains, they know they’ll find them in the garden sipping wine and taking selfies. What used to contain a couple of old dumped cars is now a tumble of nasturtium flowers, Chilean guava and heirloom tomatoes, overlooking Lake Wakatipu’s Frankton Arm. There are drifts of corn and rainbows of chard. Pineapple sage, regular sage and every other herb you can think of. It’s beautiful and delicious but it’s not even a quarter of the story.”
We all love knowing what and where our food heroes like to eat. To mark the Pink Ribbon Breakfast Month, some of our country’s top foodies shared their standout breakfast plates from the year so far. Among their picks are fresh crumpets, homemade Cilbir eggs and taramasalata-topped toast.
The new generation of hospitality talents in Tāmaki Makaurau commands a long list. An overly abbreviated version would include Peach’s Hot Chicken (Panmure), Butter Baby (Westgate), Jo Bro’s Burgers (Titirangi) and Banh Mi Boy (Māngere). And many of these rising talents in our local dining scene are being welcomed into permanent locations from tiny food-truck kitchens. Madeleine Crutchley meets the teams behind three brick-and-mortar spots — The Muriwai Deli, Hapunan and The White Lady — to find out how restaurants are making the move work.
Dining out editor Jesse Mulligan paid a visit to Tala earlier this year, dining at the new Samoan restaurant opened by chef Henry Onesemo and his wife Debby.
Of the experience, Jesse observes, “The food is exceptional, without exception.” He continues, “Even a simple dish of fruit is special — the slice of apple, for example, humming with the citrusy flavour of the spices sumac and amchur.”
Beauty
For our second beauty week of the year, beauty editor Ashleigh Cometti considered the rise of whimsical blue hues in the approach to beauty (coming away from the minimalist makeup trends that have long dominated algorithms). Working with photographer Babiche Martens, stylist Annabel Dickson, hair and makeup artist Shirley Simpson (for Aleph Beauty) and model Rainer Majasa, Ash takes a tour through “the shade of the season” (while also cataloguing historically significant uses of the colour).
At the end of January, the Environmental Protection Authority announced a ban on the use of PFAs or ‘forever chemicals’ in cosmetics from December 31, 2026.
As Ashleigh Cometti writes, “Aotearoa is among the first countries to adopt such a stance on PFAs in a bid to protect both consumers and the environment.”
News of the ban quickly spread through our local beauty industry. To capture the response, our beauty editor canvassed a collection of local industry experts, who offered their insights into what the ban means for the industry and its consumers.
Lucy Vincent, the founder of Sans Ceuticals, welcomed the ban, saying “It’s about time, actually. It’s a great stance for New Zealand to make.”
Vincent tells Ash, “Most people think natural is good and synthetic is bad, but that’s absolutely not the case. There are things [that are] not as black and white as that. Online resources that have strong data are a great place the consumer can go to, and I think that’s where founders of cosmetic companies should be drawing their information from as well.”
We often defer to the experts to share their valuable insights. In this piece, makeup artists from around the country share their picks for the best foundations, from lightweight and breezy formulas to bottles delivering heavier coverage. Surprisingly, one formula came highly recommended, over and over again.
At Home
“Is there a house that changed you? A house from your past or present so profound it set your life or career on a certain trajectory?” begins deputy editor Johanna Thornton’s architecturally curious article.
Johanna speaks to a handful of local architects, who share their thoughts on the buildings that have inspired their imaginations. The favourites vary greatly — from a rurally set 1970s single-storey to a mountain retreat overlooking Lake Wakatipu and a home interspersed within Titirangi bush.
Ahead of the Aotearoa Art Fair in May, we met with Melbourne-based ceramicist and contemporary artist Zhu Ohmu. Ohmu spoke to Dan Ahwa about the role of nature in her work, working with Kate Sylvester and building resilience.
“All ceramicists will tell you about coming to terms with failures. Cracked greenware when clay is dried too quickly, a piece exploding in the kiln, a glaze that didn’t turn out quite right. During a firing, temperatures go up to thousands of degrees Celsius — so you really have to submit to the kiln.”
Within our coverage of art-adjacent matters, we’ve also spoken to woodturner Sam Choi, designer Martino Gamper, creative Evie Kemp, artist Katherine Rutecki and potter Yannick Fourbet among others.
Samantha Elliot, an interior architect, designer and self-described “organic geek”, welcomed Viva into her West Auckland home, sharing a look at her bright, minimalist space.
Deputy editor Johanna Thornton writes, “At home in Titirangi, the afternoon sun is streaming through those red-framed windows, creating warm reflections on the oak floor. Paying homage to the surroundings and the homes of Titirangi, Sam’s home is testament to the power of organic architecture.”
Culture
Senior writer Kim Knight profiles the television icon, exploring the winding path that led her to infomercial fame and where she’s been since Natural Glow commercials went off air.
“Suzanne Paul is the sales savant who wooed a nation with plastic pots of Natural Glow. She flogged a face bronzer and became a millionaire. She tried to establish a Māori-themed entertainment village and was declared bankrupt. Vibrating pillows, Ginsu knives and an eponymously named scarf clip. Weddings, divorces and IVF failures. From Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner to Dancing With The Stars to — well, she can’t say what’s next, but watch this small screen space.”
Suzanne Paul was also the cover star for our autumn fashion special, donning ostentatious prints, vivid colours and glamourous textures.
Muslims make up 25 per cent of the world’s population but are severely under-represented on screen. For this cover story, Dan Ahwa spoke to the ensemble cast behind hyper-local show Miles From Nowhere to find out how they aim to change that narrative.
“The show is also really important in saying that there is no one way to be Muslim,” says Arlo Green, who plays Said in the series. “Muslims should feel like they have a place; for hijabis and non-hijabis to feel like they have a place without judgment. The community has a lot of judgment internally as well as externally, but I don’t see how judgment has any room in Islam.”
For the cover story of our Wellington-themed week, we invited of coterie of creatives to gather within Parliament House. There was one simple provision we asked that they follow: Come as you are. In this story, Dan Ahwa speaks to writer and poet Romesh Dissanayake, stylist Chloe Hill, restaurateurs Stina Persen and Max Gordy, designer James Bush and muse, artist and model Jillian Allen. Each creative shares their perspective on the clothing that makes them smile and the spots in Wellington that are special to them.
In Viva’s other writings about the capital for this celebratory project, we considered the best places to eat right now (and the spots recommended by local chefs and foodies), visited the best places to shop, toured a glossy few wine bars and found out about a fragrance looking to capture the city’s scent.
Life
Behind The Smile, a photography and audio exhibition launched by mental health charity Voices Of Hope, spotlighted 11 personal stories from everyday New Zealanders. The project, which took a year to produce, explores the connections between culture, creativity and the processes of healing.
Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, Voices Of Hope co-founder Genevieve Mora reflected on the aims of the showing.
“These images portray a vulnerability and strength that signals no shame; when one person shares their story, it allows a safe space for others to seek the help and support they deserve.”
Wedding costs are skyrocketing and guests are among the people feeling the pinch. Off the back of wedding season, Rebecca Barry Hill spoke to a bride-to-be, a disgruntled attendee and an etiquette coach, seeking to better understand the ethics around finances, gifts and nuptials.
