“Did you see the Zambesi drone show over the Southern Alps??!!” “Oh my God! The adidas Originals café in the botanic gardens was so cute!” “We flew here in the Air New Zealand Karen Walker 777!” These and many other stories are what we’re envisioning could come out of Christchurch in November, if we had our way and control of a limitless budget.
It’s been just over one month since New Zealand Fashion Week 2025 ended, which means it’s been almost a month since the event’s directors announced its very first satellite off-shoot to be held in Christchurch between November 7th to 9th. And on the topic of timelines, it’s worth noting that only a year ago we weren’t celebrating the end of New Zealand Fashion Week 2024 because it didn’t happen. The change in fortunes in the last 12 months has been remarkable – we’ve gone from the local industry collectively agreeing that they couldn’t pull themselves together to put on Fashion Week last year, and now we’ve been blessed with an incredible five day long event at Shed 10 that completely rewrote the rules for New Zealand Fashion Week, as well as the promise of a capsule event in the Garden City which will bring New Zealand Fashion Week alive in the South Island.
But the big question on everyone’s lips is What will it actually look like? We decided it was worth doing a little bit of digging as well as a pinch of dreaming to bring you our vision of what the Christchurch Spring Fashion Festival could look like this year.
First things first is that the event will likely not be a full replay of New Zealand Fashion Week 2025. From what we hear it’s going to be a pared-back version that celebrates New Zealand fashion with a focus on Christchurch brands and the South Island. After all, the last thing Christchurch wants is to transport everything from Auckland to their city – there’s plenty of talent in the South Island in terms of designers, artists, models and more that will help bring this vibrant event to life in a uniquely Christchurch way.
With the event starting on Friday the 7th of November, it gives rise to an event that springboards everyone into a huge weekend of fashion. Especially as the Spring Fashion Festival exists across the three days just prior to Cup Week, it means that fashion fans can jump head-first into New Zealand Fashion Week’s satellite event, ensuring the city gets a blast of fashion and commerce spread across retail stores, art galleries, bars and restaurants ahead of what is typically a popular week for Christchurch.
What we’d love to see is some of NZFW 2025’s big shows replicated in Christchurch. New Zealand Fashion Week’s opening event ‘Into the Archives’ was such a tremendous hit, as was the ‘Best of Fashion Week’ shows on Saturday night, so one of those two shows would be perfectly poised to repeat in Christchurch in front of a big audience. Or maybe there’s a version that’s unique to Christchurch, but a BIG show that celebrates local fashion is a must.
One of the most popular aspects of New Zealand Fashion Week 2025 was the elasticity of the schedule, which meant that designers, brands and spaces around Auckland could activate in totally unique ways. This format would suit Christchurch perfectly, as much of the city’s activity centers on the CBD which has a thriving shopping, hospitality and culture scene. Not to let the cat out of the bag, but here at FNZ we are working on our own satellite event that could form a part of the Fashion Festival alongside an iconic Christchurch art gallery and another fashion business. It’s these unique events that are generally small to medium-sized which enables a far more diverse range of customers to engage with New Zealand fashion, whether that be through panel talks, opportunities to meet designers, live fashion shoots, galleries and installations, book launches or anything else the industry can conjure up.
Speaking to FNZ, local Christchurch-based beauty entrepreneur and fashion influencer Mary Oh has shared her insights into how she believes the Fashion Festival may come to life, as well as her own anecdotal feedback from Christchurch locals who, by the sounds of it, are absolutely buzzing at the prospect of the spring fashion festival coming to life.
“I’m hoping this first year feels extra special with a little something from BONNIE, possibly in the pipeline alongside one of my favourite New Zealand designers. And goshhh well, Christchurch is actually just so ready to get behind this… we’ve never had anything like it in the city before. There’s such a buzz already, and I know our community is going to embrace it wholeheartedly. I’m really looking forward to seeing the full schedule released next week.”
Based on New Zealand Fashion Week’s new inclusive format, we can’t wait to hear more about the brands, designers, galleries and spaces that light up Christchurch between November 7th to 9th. If nothing else, what this Fashion Festival will do is show the tremendous potential of New Zealand Fashion Week as an event and a brand that should have a year-long presence around Aotearoa, supporting the fashion industry in myriad ways and allowing stories, voices and moments to be shared with customers and creators alike. Perhaps in the future we will also see satellite events pop up in Wellington, Queenstown or maybe The Waikato. There’s always room for another podcast, or perhaps a series of traveling events that allow young fashion creators to meet their heroes and learn how to tap into the industry. It feels like, at the moment, New Zealand fashion has been buoyed by Fashion Week 2025, so it will be exciting to see how that momentum manifests throughout the country over the next 12 months.
