September is a month which revolves around fashion.  As the seasons change, Vogue‘s biggest issue of the year is released, & fashion events kick off all around the planet, from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week & Couture Fashion Week in New York to Moda Donna in Italy & London Fashion Week in the United Kingdom.

Of course, fashion week has its issues.  People who don’t care about fashion — of which there are many — look down on it as a shallow, meaningless event, & this is not always helped by what occurs on & off the runway.  Fashion shows are notorious for tyrannical egos, staunch clipboard-holders & enormous cups of Starbucks.  Celebrities descend in droves, designers take theatrical bows, & street-style snappers are worshiped with an almost religious fervor.

However, down in the antipodes — or more specifically, in Auckland, New Zealand, home of Air New Zealand Fashion Week — the atmosphere is different.  Yes, there will be shows, parties, gaggles of journalists foaming at the mouth, all commencing on Monday the 21st of September.  But in a strange & fabulous twist, 240 of New Zealand’s most well-known & glamorous names will shirk their stilettos in exchange for sneakers.  They’re going to take up hammers & build a house right in the middle of the furor.

The idea can be credited to Trelise Cooper, one of New Zealand’s most successful designers, in collaboration with Habitat For Humanity.  Habitat is an international, non-profit organization which uses volunteers to build “simple, decent & affordable” housing.  The homes are sold at no profit, with low loan repayments, & the house built during ANZFW will be given to a single mother & her three children, who currently live in a garage at the back of her family’s property.

Working in half-shifts over five days, the crew will be made up of fashion designers, ANZFW participants & media, & overseen by qualified builders & tradespeople — primarily female.  As well as gaining great press for Habitat For Humanity, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to show that fashion isn’t all couture temper tantrums.

It’s no huge surprise that this has sprung from the mind of Trelise Cooper.  She has always been unconventional.  Despite never learning to sew, Trelise’s eye for design has earned her great success — & she even sees her lack of formal education as an advantage.  “Because I am untrained,” she says, “I approach my designs in an unconstrained way & I feel a freedom in this.  It is unconventional but it means outcomes are not limited by traditional boundaries.”  As a well-known philanthropist, Trelise has donated time & money to breast cancer research, domestic violence awareness & the opera, with Habitat For Humanity being her most recent focus.

ANZFW’s managing director Pieter Stewart says, “We loved the idea, it was as simple as that.  It will be an extraordinary experience for everyone involved in seeing the house created over the week. Fashion Week is obviously an intense time for our designers & sponsors but the feedback we’re getting already is that many of them can’t wait to get a hammer in their hand.”

Words by Gala Darling