27/07/2026
✨🧡 LAND OF THE LONG LINE OF CONSTRUCTION WORK 🧡✨
HOKONUI FASHION DESIGN AWARDS
🥇 Gala Open Section – 1st Place
It's okay if your jaw is on the floor... it's pretty fkn bright, isn't it?
This piece, Land of the Long Line of Construction Work, is my love letter to this beautiful little country I've called home my entire life. Once I'd decided I was moving to Australia, I knew I wanted my last projects here to say thank you to Aotearoa. One day, while hand-stitching (where my brain tends to wander), I found myself wondering how I could do that without making something overly sentimental.
Then I remembered that we have a government that has a road cone hotline. I think that the whole thing is ridiculous, but it got me thinking. We seem to love complaining about road cones and construction, but for a young country still finding its feet, isn't building infrastructure exactly what we should be doing? The humble road cone might be a nuisance to some, but to me it's become a symbol of progress. It marks the places where today's inconvenience becomes tomorrow's investment. From there, the idea snowballed. I started thinking about our tūpuna naming this land Aotearoa, ‘the Land of the Long White Cloud’, and what they might think if they saw the country today. Would they be proud? Frustrated? Hopeful? Probably all of the above.
I loved the idea of the challenge of turning something so synonymous with blue-collar work into couture. The gown borrows the silhouette of a road cone, while the dramatic cope references the long white cloud. I also looked to designers like Pierpaolo Piccioli, whose fearless use of bold blocks of colour convinced me to fully embrace the absurdity of fluorescent orange.
Also, shout out to the Sallies in Palmy for unknowingly stocking a fabric that would change the trajectory of this entry. About halfway through I hit a crisis point and finding the darker orange fabric for the cape sitting on a roll felt like divine intervention.
I've realised that a lot of my favourite ideas start with one question: "Wouldn't it be funny if...". Sometimes that's dangerous, but it's also where the best ideas live. I don't want to take fashion so seriously that I forget to play. I want to make garments that make people laugh first and think second.
I'm still blown away that this ridiculous little idea went on to win 1st Place in the Gala Section, beating out 24 other entries. The standard was insanely high, and I'm incredibly grateful to Hokonui Fashion Design Awards for creating a space where designers can take risks like this.
So if you've got a weird idea rattling around in your head… Take the punt, you never know where it'll take you. 🧡🚧
