2022

Each year there are six section themes for designers to create for, and then these six worlds are displayed on stage.

In 2022, the Aotearoa Section was heralded by kapa haka performers, Ngāti Pōneke, and five giant Kaitiaki, then a colourful celebration of our international community and cultures before we then saw the fantastic Aotearoa Section garments take the stage.

A beautiful aerialist performance started the next show section: Avant-garde Section. The audience was treated to a stunning garden of chandeliers with black wraith-like dancers performing a dramatic chair dance routine as the scene began.

The Monochromatic Section was big, bold with upbeat music.  A Kaynemail curtain rolled out featuring  giant projections of each garment and created a tunnel through which the garments appeared.  Performers filled the isles at the start of the Open Section with a fantastic dance routine and singing led by Estere, this year’s featured artist. The Kaynemail again took centre stage projecting images of rings of fire.

Next up was the upside-down world of Architecture. Drawing on ideas similar to the movie Inception, this section played with ideas of dimensions and time. Dancers in black suits with suitcases appeared and disappeared from doorways, took to the air in dramatic aerialist displays, and dropped through trapdoors as incredible garments made their entrances.  

The grand finale was the Elizabethan Section with a stunning array of colourful garments that paraded through an Elizabethan garden. The final scene saw Estere lifted to the heavens by pink ribbons in a shower of confetti.  The whole arena was bathed in a sea of pink as the audience became part of the show waving their pink fans in the air.