HOKONUI FASHION AWARDS

---

Fashion does not begin at Fashion Week. It begins in workrooms, classrooms and studios, with fabric on a table, a concept being challenged, a pattern being cut and somebody deciding an idea is worth pursuing.

That is precisely why the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards remain relevant.

For Cantabrian Magazine, the 2026 awards are particularly worth watching. Ōtautahi’s Ara Institute of Canterbury emerged with significant recognition, led by final year Bachelor of Design student Alex O’Hagan, whose collection claimed three major honours: the Dunedin Airport Open Collections Award, Best Use of Fabric Award and the Mataura Licensing Trust Award of Excellence.

The strength of O’Hagan’s collection sits well beyond the awards themselves. At its centre is a deceptively complex research question: “How can I materialise the co-existence of control and lack of control?” Rather than presenting those forces as opposites, O’Hagan explores the space where they can exist together. Control and spontaneity become a duality rather than a contradiction, reflecting the broader experience of what can emerge when life moves beyond what can be planned.

That thinking is translated directly into the clothes. Proportions flow through layered silhouettes, while precise tailoring and pleating sit against softness, volume and fullness. The eye moves between discipline and release, with structure giving way to movement before drawing the gaze back again. A tailored velvet double breasted jacket set against gathered tulle makes that tension especially clear.

The result is fashion with an intellectual foundation that never forgets the importance of the garment itself. It is controlled without becoming rigid and experimental without losing refinement. There is something particularly compelling about a young designer choosing not to resolve uncertainty, but instead examining what might be created within it.

Hokonui judge and Kowtow Head Designer Dayne Johnston recognised O’Hagan’s command of fabric, proportion and craftsmanship, with the work demonstrating the level of technical and conceptual thinking increasingly expected from emerging designers. For anyone serious about fashion education, that distinction matters. Concept may begin the conversation, while technical ability is what allows a designer to complete it.

The Christchurch story extends beyond one collection. Holly Liberona, Fashion Programme Co Lead at Ara, was runner up in the Open Gala category with Read Between the Lines, a work that continues the conversation between idea, process and finished form.

In Liberona’s own words, “Read Between the Lines ultimately collapses the space between concept and garment. The piece invites the viewer to read the dress not only as an object, but as a trace of thinking made visible. In doing so, it questions where design truly resides, in the finished form, or in the first line that defined it.”

There is a fluidity to that idea that feels central to the work. Thought moves into line, line into construction and construction into garment. The finished piece becomes more than the end point of a design process. It carries the evidence of where that process began.

Second year designer Isabella Fenton, who received a Highly Commended placing in Open Avant Garde, brings yet another layer of thinking to Ara’s showing. Her design process is heavily influenced by the philosophies of Mātauranga Māori, with connection, meaning, respect and sustainability forming part of the framework through which she creates.

Fenton describes whanaungatanga as integral to that process, considering how her work connects with audience, community, culture and environment. In her words, “The acknowledgement that my work is a reflection of culture is crucial to the success of my design.” It is an approach that places the garment within a wider network of relationships rather than treating fashion as something created in isolation.

There is also a direct social message running through Fenton’s work, particularly in its address to young women. “You must exist for yourself,” she writes. “Dedicating yourself to an arbitrary standard will never be enough. No matter how you give, it will never be enough.”

It is a strong statement, and intentionally so. The work moves beyond aesthetic experimentation into a conversation about identity, expectation and the pressure placed on women to continually measure themselves against standards that may never have belonged to them in the first place. Fenton’s response is not passive. It asks the wearer, and the viewer, to consider where value is located and who gets to define it.

Together, these three designers show why the Ara presence at Hokonui matters. O’Hagan explores the tension between control and uncertainty. Liberona examines the space between thought and finished form. Fenton brings culture, connection and selfhood into the design conversation. Their approaches are different, yet each demonstrates that fashion can carry an argument as effectively as it carries a silhouette.

That ecosystem is exactly what interests Cantabrian Magazine. CM has established a fashionable relationship with Ara because local fashion matters. Not local as a qualifier, but local as an origin point.

Christchurch has style. More importantly, it has people learning how to design it, construct it, teach it, photograph it, style it and eventually take it into the wider industry. There is a significant difference between consuming fashion and creating a fashion culture, and Ara is helping to build the latter.

For the 18 to 40 fashion crowd, academics, working designers, stylists, photographers and those who genuinely understand clothes, Hokonui deserves attention because this is where tomorrow’s industry can first become visible. O’Hagan’s winning collection will also move into a New Zealand Fashion Week exhibition, taking an idea developed through study in Christchurch into another layer of the national fashion conversation.

That progression matters because great fashion cities are never built on retail alone. They are built through schools, studios, emerging designers, mentors, competitions, photographers, buyers, editors and audiences willing to take new talent seriously. New Zealand fashion must be built the same way, city by city.

View the collections below. 

Imagery courtesy Ara Institute 

Runway imagery Jackie Gill | Still Vision Photography 

More than 300 skin therapists, registered nurses and business owners gathered at Auckland's SkyCity Theatre this week to celebrate the people helping New Zealanders feel confident in their skin, with a Merivale skin therapist taking home one of the industry's top honours.

The Caci Awards recognise excellence across the nationwide network of more than 75 clinics, celebrating outstanding achievements in categories such as Skin Therapist, Registered Nurse, Customer Experience and overall clinic performance.

Nicole Marley from Caci Merivale was named Skin Therapist of the Year, recognised for her exceptional consistency and expertise in helping her customers to achieve their goals. 

Nicole stood out amongst New Zealand's largest team of skin therapists, helping deliver more than 300,000 treatments across the Caci network in the past year.

Receiving the award, Nicole said the recognition reflects a genuine passion for helping customers achieve their skin goals.

"I love seeing the difference great skin confidence can make in someone's life. Every customer journey is different and being trusted to support people through that process is something I never take for granted.”

Caci CEO Glenice Riley says the annual event celebrates a profession that often doesn't receive the recognition it deserves.

"While awards are fabulous, behind every winner are hundreds of people who get out of bed every day with the same purpose.

“People aren't simply placing their skin or health in our hands. They're placing their confidence, their self-image and often their personal story in our care."

The Skin Therapist of the Year award recognises excellence across a range of measures, rewarding therapists who consistently deliver outstanding customer outcomes while demonstrating exceptional professionalism, and technical expertise through commitment to ongoing development.

Hosted by Antonia Prebble at Auckland’s SkyCity Theatre, the event brought together Caci clinic owners and their teams from across the country to celebrate the people behind the brand and the local clinics serving communities from Whangārei to Invercargill.