NZ Fashion Week 2023: What Did Buyers Look For?

The coterie of invisible influencers has a prerogative: to help shape what we wear now.

The glitzy front rows of runways at New Zealand Fashion Week: Kahuria welcomed a broad audience of attendees last week — including designers, influencers, media, PR professionals and, at one point, even a sparkling, smiling and sash-wearing Miss New Zealand.

While these highly publicised groups (and pageant royals) were dominant in the public image of Fashion Week, they were also accompanied by a more low-key, and potentially more influential, crowd of guests.

Buyers, representing stores from Wānaka to Melbourne, travelled to Tāmaki Makaurau and the sunny Viaduct surrounds to see the collections of various New Zealand designers last week.

These fashion industry professionals have a lot of sway within our local industry — if you’re wandering a shop floor, you’re seeing the effects of their work. Buyers work with merchandising teams and managers, as well as their supplying designers and brands, to carefully curate the stock available in store. Essentially, it is a buyer’s job to fill the racks of a store with clothing that is appealing to a specific customer base and their everyday lives, all while maintaining an eye on relevant trends and the ever-changing expectations of those consumers.

Sally Spackman of Ballentynes explains how large the scope of those customers can be, especially in the case of those large department stores. “I buy so many brands, across a really varied demographic. So, I buy for 15-year-olds right through to grandmothers.”

Sally also highlights that the process of buying means balancing the wants and needs of customers, depending on their locations, occasions and everyday life. Pieces, usually, need to be new and fresh, but also maintain a “classic” look, be practical to wear, have good value for money and showcase some “sustainable” elements (whether it’s produced with lower impact methods or providing sustainable and long-term wear).

Eva Galambos, buyer for Sydney-based luxury fashion boutique Parlour X, points to the must-haves for pieces at the brand. The buyer considers a need for “originality, creativity, quality of make, and wearability.”

Amber Malatt, a Melbourne-based buyer for Harrolds, says pieces should be adaptable across seasons and occasions. “For 2023, versatility is key, and I am searching for pieces that will be interchangeable in our wardrobes for many seasons to come, a nod to thoughtful consumption. At a brand level, it’s important for me to see that they have their own aesthetic.”

Kelly Chismon of Smith & Caughey’s also observes sustainability as a key driver for consumers and business, as well as the interpretation from designers between fashion and practicality.

The buying process, due to Covid, was largely pushed online over the last few years (especially for stores not located in main city centres). The festivities of Fashion Week provided an opportunity for buyers to run through the upcoming autumn/winter 24 collections at off-site appointments, engaging with the designers as well as the intricacies of the clothing behind closed doors.

Brydon Smallbone of 47 Frocks, a curated store in Wānaka stocking pieces from a wide range of New Zealand designers including Bronwyn, Juliette Hogan and Nom*D, says the event provided an opportunity to return to buying processes similar to before-Covid.

“Buying is so much easier, not having to Zoom. Coming here and actually seeing it, and touching the fabrics... When Covid hit everyone did so great, figuring out how to Zoom. But there’s nothing like seeing and touching the fabrics, seeing the team, meeting the designers.”

Rachel Wilson from Bella of Wānaka, a store that largely stocks pieces from New Zealand designers and New Zealand-made, also relays how this sense of connection transforms the sense of life in the clothing. After meeting with Jon Dyball of Obi, in his personal design space, the buyer is able to take more than just a stock list back to customers.

“It’s so eclectic, it’s so personally him. To see him in there and designing from that space and then viewing the range in that space, there’s a story we can take back to our customer about the passion, the thought, the art, the community that goes into those pieces.”

READ: At NZ Fashion Week, A Fresh Perspective Helped Heal A Deflated Industry

As the buyers have noted, plenty of their week is not spent at the official schedule of Fashion Week, but instead in design studios, showrooms and even makeshift hotel room pop-ups. Sally divulges the main focus for the week (chatting during a car ride between her various meetings). “I do more appointments than shows during Fashion Week because that’s the more important part of the week for me. I’ve been doing about five appointments a day, seeing ranges for next winter.”

In earlier 20th-century fashion cycle structures, buyers might have attended the runway shows to peek at the relevant seasonal collection for the first time. Now, as the industry has adapted to utilise the shows as more timely release events, runway shows have taken on different functions for buyers.

Rachel says that the tone of a show becomes a really important aspect to bring back to customers (comparing a daytime appointment with Kate Sylvester, to the dramatic evening show scored with pulsating rock tunes).

“Obviously, the shows help you understand a feeling or a mood, the lighting, the music plays into a designer’s thoughts — whether it’s an ethereal piece or a structural and bold piece... You see those [aspects] come through on the runway; you get a feeling for the mood, and it becomes captured in the garment.”

Sally says shows now often come as the stock launches in-store, shifting the experience to a more relaxed moment of commemoration, recounting the experience at Juliette Hogan.

“Watching the show is more of a celebration. I’ll watch how they’ve styled it, that’s what I find interesting. I’ll take that back to our team.”

Amber says that approaching the process of buying with a ‘story’ in mind could be helpful in creating cohesion among pieces from collections. Kelly also says that a show might provide an idea of how “the designer wishes the collection to be considered”.

The Smith & Caughey’s buyer also suggests that heading along to shows from young, emerging or more niche designers can be an excellent introduction (potentially leading to a later relationship). “I loved the Miromoda show as this was a great way to see new designers’ interpretation of fashion and how they see the future of fashion. My colleagues attended the Viva Next Gen show and gave some great feedback on the show and will be looking into a few designers and following the journey they are on.”

Amber agrees, finding joy in the pieces sent down the runway by other young designers.

“The graduate’s show was a definite highlight, it’s always exciting to see the creativeness of the upcoming local talent! Especially after a three-year hiatus, it felt refreshing to showcase so many graduate designers at Fashion Week.”

Similarly, Eva said that shows from Kiri Nathan, Rory Docherty and Campbell Luke (who are not currently stocked at Parlour X) were the ones most capturing.

Perhaps the overarching feeling for the buyers last week, like many other industry attendees, was the charm of the long-awaited gathering of their community.

Sally reflects on this feeling of togetherness, which even reached designers not showing at Fashion Week. “I think the most important thing, especially while going around appointments this week, is the sense of community and coming together. I know a lot of the brands that don’t have a fashion show have come up to sell this week, and they have found it amazing — they’ve really missed having Fashion Week because everyone can be in one place at one time.”

Brydon also notes a sense of compassion that has radiated between retail professionals, finding comfort in knowing that everyone is in the same boat (facing a tricky economic market). The 47 Frocks buyer also reflects on the meaning of the gathering for buyers and designers who supported each other through the last few years.

“I always remember, I said to James from Jimmy D: ‘I might have to pay you installments.’ He said: ‘You always pay me, I’ve got your back. It’s my turn to have your back.’”

Another story illustrated the reflective atmosphere.

“I remember chatting to Margi [Robertson] and Liz [Elizabeth Findlay], from Nom*D and Zambesi, and saying, ‘We’re all in this together, we will get through this’.”

Now on the other side of some of the challenges of those years and re-energised after a week of community and celebration, a refreshed Brydon looks forward to the next steps.

“[It] ignites and reminds you why you do it, and your passion, and then makes you so much more enthusiastic for when you do the buying, and when the stock arrives in store.”