Winning designer inspired by Maori heritage

Miromoda winner Misty Ratima with her fashion designs. Photo / Masanori Udagawa.

Napier-based designer Misty Ratima is to showcase a collection of her garments at New Zealand Fashion week after being named the supreme winner of the indigenous Maori design competition Miromoda.

Misty was invited to enter garments in the nationwide competition for Maori fashion designers staged at Pataka Art + Museum in Porirua last weekend. Her win now takes her to New Zealand Fashion Week, where she will showcase eight looks in front of an 800-plus audience.

Anticipating her success, she has already completed her collection for the biggest event in this country's sartorial calendar, to be held in Auckland from August 28 to September 3.

"It's been seven years in the making," Misty says of her success at Miromoda. "I watched the 2010 show and wanted to design Maori fashion. I was living in Auckland at that time and returned to Hawke's Bay.

"Since then I've been on a learning journey at EIT, studying te reo Maori and Maoritanga, fashion design and visual arts and design. When I complete my second degree at the end of the year, I hope to launch my own fashion label called Te Kohu."

Misty has previous form as a talented designer.

She was a star achiever in the 2014 Hokonui Fashion Awards, which she and her classmates entered as final-year Certificate of Fashion Apparel students at EIT.

Misty won the national competition's Auaha Special Award - an open category celebrating innovation and creativity - with a steep-collared jacket and dress featuring diamond shapes symbolising the seven stars of Matariki or Pleiades cluster of stars.

Building on that concept, her Miromoda collection is called Matariki Ahunga Nui, which refers to the harvesting of food such as kumara and celebrates unity, hospitality, whanau and sharing.

A significant focus for Misty's design is her Maori culture - she is a descendant of Ngati Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Rongowhakaata and Ngati Hine.

She likes to use block colours, imagery and embroidery in her designs and the concepts are a means of communicating her cultural background in a contemporary way.

After her 17-year stint in Auckland, Misty gained a bachelor of arts (Maori) from EIT's Te Uranga Waka before going on to study the two-year fashion design certificate.

Continuing at EIT, she is a final-year bachelor of visual arts and design student at ideaschool while also tutoring night classes for the certificate in Māori Studies.

"It's been a long time coming," she says of her career path.

"Where I establish my business will depend on my whanau and networks - it will be where it's most favourable to support my business and mix with other creatives."