Fashion designer Misty Ratima’s star is glowing ever brighter, with the EIT graduate collecting the supreme award in a nationwide competition for Māori fashion talents for a second time.

Also a graduate of EIT’s Certificate in Fashion Apparel, Te Orihau Karaitiana, was a runner-up in the emerging designers section of the sold-out Miromoda event staged at Porirua’s Pataka Art + Museum.

The pair, who are both of Ngāti Kahungunu descent, crafted their collections in the fashion workshop at EIT’s ideaschool. 

Misty submitted two collections for this year’s competition. 

The first, entitled Ko Rangi Ki Runga, Ko Papa Ki Raro, is a unisex streetwear collection that speaks about the importance of balance between the natural environment and humankind. 

The second, named Decolonise, is an avant garde collection that serves to provoke in-depth discussion about the sacredness of women and whare tangata (house of humanity, womb).

Misty has made an online release of key garments under her Te Kohu clothing label and hopes to add new garments for sale by the end of the year. 

For his Taura Here collection, Te Orihau used natural materials such as onion skins and wood chips to hand dye natural fabrics – merino, bamboo, silk, organic cotton and charcoal and linen.   

Meaning binding together, Taura Here was about incorporating the natural environment and natural dyes and fabrics in his garments, says Te Orihau, a designer and assistant buyer for Aroha & Friends in Ahuriri.   

The wins mean both will showcase their collections to a live audience at New Zealand Fashion Week, to be held in Auckland’s Viaduct in late August.

As well as the supreme award, Misty was also first equal in the avant garde designer section and runner-up in the established designers’ class.

Misty, who also has whakapapa links to Rongamaiwahine, Rongawhakaata and Ngāti Hine, started her EIT study journey at Te Ūranga Waka, where she gained a Bachelor of Arts (Māori).

After completing the fashion certificate programme, she cross-credited into ideaschool’s Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design.  Since 2013, she has also tutored EIT students in te reo Māori.

After living in Auckland for 17 years, it was the pull of her tūrangawaewae that brought Misty back to Hawke’s Bay, where she was born and raised.  Her whānau and her ancestors, she says, are her biggest personal and creative influences.

With Māori culture her wellspring, the fashion designer and artist plans to continue drawing conceptually from traditional stories, beliefs and practices in expressing herself in contemporary creative media.