There are textile/ costume events and exhibitions up the wazoo over the next two months. Most important of these is the CTANZ symposium in Nelson 27-29 September. Register before 1 September and you could win a $25 gift voucher from lovely Nelson craft supplies shop, Broomfields & Co. But register, because the programme’s terrific.
Kicking off on 26 August is this year’s NZ Fashion Week, which includes the usual industry events, the usual more open fashion weekend, and a great programme in partnership with Auckland’s Central City Library, with a focus on sustainable fashion.
Hands-on and hand-made sewing workshops encouraging renewable fashion, fashionable talks, clothes swaps, 3D and block printing and upcycled miniature fashion for toys are on offer from 26 August to 1 September to help champion a sustainable approach to self-expression.
Also just opened in Auckland, though on for a month, is Masterworks Gallery’s biennial “Button’ exhibition, showing just over 20 artists using a variety of materials from textiles, embroidery, metals, stone, wood, paper, ceramic and stone. If this seems familiar, it’s because the Gallery had such a hit when they invited button art in 2017 that they decided to make it regular.
While Auckland’s doing fashion week, Wellington’s doing food, with Wellington on a Plate. But it’s not without textile innovation, with Australian artist Chili Philly in town to combine cooking and hooking with No Way Crochet at Te Auaha, NZ Institute of Creativity. As interviewed on Nine to Noon, with a lot of giggling, because everyone needs a giant crochet lemon meringue pie in their head.
Another biennial exhibition opening on 25 August is a bit further afield: the Ashburton Embroiderers’ Guild’s Gathering of Threads at the Ashburton Art Gallery. The Ashburton guild, one of 58! guilds affiliated in NZ, began 47 years ago and became a guild in 1978.