2022 Judges
BERNINA NORTHLAND FASHION AWARDS
Denise L’Estrange-Corbet
Co-founder and Designer Denise L’Estrange-Corbet along with Francis Hooper, launched international fashion house WORLD in 1989, with just $200 each and absolutely no business acumen.
‘Survival’ was all they were thinking about, and the fact that they were both bored with what they were doing. They decided to launch their own brand, whilst sitting at a bus stop in Auckland’s Queen Street, and the rest is history.
The brand was the first New Zealand brand to show internationally at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week in 1997, and then followed by London Fashion Week, Singapore, Paris, Melbourne, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
They won the Benson & Hedges Fashion Awards with their Avant Garde origami outfit made entirely of cardboard, which now sits in the Auckland Museum.
Their garments are held in collections at Te Papa, Wellington, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, where they are currently in the Queer Exhibition until August 2022.
Denise is looking for garments that are inspirational and aspirational, “I want to see something new, something that excites me, and makes me question how it is made, I thrive on ideas”.
Hinurewa te Hau
Hinurewa te Hau, is the General Manager for Creative Northland heading, a team of six amazing creative individuals and has responsibility for strategy, funding & development, industry relations and oversees the implementation of regional art programmes across the North.
She is a big thinker, a strategist, advisor, and implementer. Her specialisation is in how much culture matters to economic outcomes and the relationship ‘culture and creativity’ has for communities in the creation of local economic development initiatives.
She is an expert in business strategy, governance, and cultural management, and fostering social-cultural networks and has an extensive network throughout the country and globally. Basically, she knows how to connect the dots!
She is one very talented lady, with one of her secret talents being able to knit small objects.
We are very privileged to have her as part of our judging team for this years’ Bernina Northland Fashion Awards.
Leanne Kemp
Leanne Kemp considers herself an artist rather than a seamstress, as she has a passion for creating works of art mainly from fabrics.
She has entered a number of pieces in various
fashion and wearable art shows over the years with great success.
Leanne also has a love of steampunk which has given her an outlet to design and create unique Victorian inspired garments.
She finds inspiration for her art in nature and the world that surrounds her – seeing possibilities for the unusual in everyday things and translating that into fabric.
2022 Creative Director
Daniel Matene
Daniel Matene aka Dan Black is a local business owner and an internationally award winning hairdresser. At 15 years old, Dan dropped out of high school to begin his illustrious hairdressing career where he established himself in Whangarei before travelling and working overseas.
He is no stranger to competition nor a fashion show. Throughout his career, Dan has competed in national and global hair shows where he most notably won Gold in the 2015 Goldwell Colour Zoom Competition for Australia and New Zealand.
Dan has worked on shoots and shows for NZ Fashion Week, Australian Fashion Week, movies, tv, music videos, and also produced four of his own fashion shows here in Whangarei. He was a judge for the 2014 Bernina Northland Fashion Awards and then the Creative Director for the 2016 show.
Dan is beyond excited to be back as the Creative Director for the 2022 Bernina Northland Fashion Awards as he loves working with talented people who are brave enough to showcase their ideas on the stage.
