Designer Vince Ropitini Reasserts The Art Of Passive Resistance

Vince Ropitini scooped two awards for his collection The Art Of Passive Resistance at iD Dunedin Fashion Week. The designer speaks to Madeleine Crutchley about threading histories of protest together and the influence of contemporary Māori art.

Ko parau tēnei.

This is the plough.

The phrase is emblazoned across the garments in the collection The Art Of Resistance.

It represents an act of peaceful protest, referring to resistance by the people of Parihaka. In 1879, as Pākehā Government surveyors encroached from the north on the community in Taranaki, prophet Tohu Kākahi directed people to plough the confiscated land to assert their ownership (people of Parihaka never accepted the justice or legality of the government’s seizure of land*).

It was the initial challenge posed to the Government by Parihaka, and one that would encapsulate the peaceful, non-violent methods of resistance from tangata whenua that would follow.

Ko parau tēnei.

Vince Ropitini (Taranaki, Ngā Ruahinerangi, Ngāti Mutunga, Whakatōhea) evokes the phrase to conjure up a historical account of protest. There are other emblems of peaceful resistance regenerated in Vince’s collection: painterly prints of raukura (white feathers) donned by the community and quotes from the teachings of peaceful resistance by prophets Whiti-o-Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi.

“Gather up the earth on which the blood is spilt and bring it to Parihaka.”

The collection, which has been restaged and reimagined multiple times in the two years since its initial creation, has shown at Melbourne Fashion Festival, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space and iD Dunedin Fashion Week. In Ōtepoti this April, Vince was recognised as the Top NZ Designer and granted the Polson Higgs Entrepreneur in Design Award.

Vince cultivated a keen interest in the creative arts throughout his schooling years, from painting to design and music. His focus on fashion was stirred during a workshop that merged clothing with those more familiar art forms.

“I went along to a screen-printing workshop in school holidays one time and that was the point that fused my sort of love for painting, design and fashion.”

As a teenager, growing up in Ngāmotu New Plymouth, Vince began to source second-hand clothing from local op shops for his screen-printing and sold a few pieces. This growing interest in fashion and design steered Vince towards a Bachelor of Design at Massey University in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, where academic encouragement of study and citation led Vince to conceptualise The Art Of Passive Resistance.

“Before you even get to the making itself, you’ve got all of this research, historical garment research, so you really know what you’re making.

“It really helps to solidify your position as a designer.”

In his research, Vince drew on an exhibition staged at Wellington City Gallery in 2000 called Parihaka: The Art Of Passive Resistance.

Contemporary Māori artists, including Tāme Iti, Shane Cotton and Ralph Hōtere, provided a visual language for Vince to draw on. You can see the influence throughout the collection, in the style of the textural etchings and the linework painted onto the garments.

The coat, painted with the peak of Taranaki and raukura (three white feathers), also echoes the cover of Dick Scott’s 1975 history book called Ask That Mountain, but strongly reasserts the presence and power of the maunga.

Vince also looked across the globe to find powerful images of protest dress.

Zoot suits and the Harlem Renaissance era provided inspiration for the silhouette of the ensembles. Vince was particularly drawn to the way Black and Mexican Americans donned tailored oversized suits to peacefully assert their place, to challenge and to parody.

“The parallels there, I thought, were quite appropriate for me to recreate the sort of baggy, oversized suit.”

The slogan-bearing T-shirts adopt a technique of confrontation by English designer Katherine Hamnett, who most famously donned an anti-nuclear statement while meeting Margaret Thatcher (the text of Vince’s T-shirts mimics a font used in Tāme Iti’s I Will Not Speak Māori posters).

Another adornment draws on Vivienne Westwood’s beloved punkish, protesting accessories – badges.

“It’s a very easy and economic way of saying something. It’s a statement.”

Adorning the lapels, they incorporate various resonating slogans and symbols. There’s the raukura, the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, Taranaki and more artistic influences.

“One piece that inspired me was Michael Parekōwhai’s work, Poorman, Beggarman, Thief. It’s the three Māori men dressed in suits, around the gallery and they’re wearing a name tag that says ‘Hori’ on it. That’s the direct relation to having that on my badges.”

The continued tour of this collection also influences Vince’s designs, as other creatives take up his proposition and offer interesting additions. When he was invited to show at Enjoy Contemporary Art Space as a part of an exhibition called Kaka-Aku, he developed another piece that would go on to show at Dunedin iD.

“I realised I had not looked into the blankets that the women of Parihaka were wearing. I wanted to create this textile piece that was a nod to [that].”

The designer incorporated a suggestion from curator Brooke Pou.

“Initially, I had in my mind that it would just be on the wall a flat, red blanket with the different patches on it. Then Brooke got back to me with the styling of it draped over the shirt.

“I actually hadn’t thought of that, but I really love it. From then, I’ve continued to style it as a wrapped piece around the body.”

He also recalls working with choreographer Bella Waru at the Melbourne Fashion Festival, who had models pose to emphasise the motifs printed on the garments, shaping themselves into mountains. When the two creatives caught up, there was a surprising connection.

“Turns out we’re actually cousins. So we met at the show, and then mum and dad were over for the show. Everyone got to meet. So, they ended up travelling back home, visiting Parihaka, visiting Taranaki.”

Now, Vince is living in Naarm, Melbourne, looking to set up in a studio space. He wants to get back into his design work for his label Obsolescence, perhaps through commissioning works or by continuing the practice of hand-painted and screen-printed menswear.

“I definitely want to continue this fusion of art and fashion in a Māori lens. [I’m] really inspired by tailored menswear.”

The Art Of Passive Resistance is an intensely personal project that Vince will hold close – it draws on whakapapa, a history of protest and a canon of contemporary Māori art to reassert a powerful mode of resistance.

“It felt right, being able to go back on learning about where I come from and my culture. It provided me that peace of being able to do something that I love, but also feel incredibly supported at the same time. It grounded me a lot... I’m very proud of it.”

Madeleine Crutchley is a journalist for Viva and lifestyle and entertainment at The New Zealand Herald. She covers stories relating to fashion, culture and food and drink, from her hometown of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Recently, she’s written about dressing during the climate emergency, alternative fashion futures and contemporary sculpture artworks.

*Anderson, Atholl, Judith Binney, and Aroha Harris. Tangata Whenua : A History. First edition. Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books, 2015. Print.

More local fashion

From emerging talents to statements through style.

William Fitzgerald’s Circular Design Is ‘Shoddy’. The Mindful Fashion Award-Winner On Why That’s A Good Thing. William Keane Jung-Ying Fitzgerald, the winner of the Editorial Prize at the Mindful Fashion Circular Design Awards, has sewn a slick suit spun from recycled materials.

iD Dunedin’s Top NZ Designer Leonard Hill On Sustainability, Storytelling & Speculative Design. When Leonard Hill first sent his collection Laughing Gas down the runway, he watched the audience eagerly for their reaction.

From Warkworth To London, Fashion Designer Kat Tua Is Challenging Māori Stereotypes. Menswear designer Kat Tua talks to Dan Ahwa about a deeply personal bespoke creation designed to underpin the values of her brand Manaaki for an international audience.

My Style: Aorangi Kora On Fashion, Craft & Creating Crochet Bae. Academic and artist Aorangi Kora’s crochet pieces have been winning fans online and off. Emma Gleason caught up with her to discuss her approach to style.

At The Hīkoi To Parliament, Self-Expression Through Dress Was Also A Form Of Protest. A royal scarf, slogan T-shirts and statements of self-determination play a pivotal role in enhancing the message during Hīkoi mō te Tiriti.