NZ Fashion Week showcasing local designers
Freja Broughton, left, and Trinity Locke have pieces heading to the runway for New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland on 22 August. Photo: Leah Tofte-Dorr
Whether in New York or New Zealand, Fashion Week is a big deal for designers. Models stroll down the runway with confidence – cameras clicking, flashes bursting, music pulsing, applause stirring – as excitement builds for cutting-edge creativity.
Two fashionistas from Marlborough Girls’ College will experience this atmosphere in the next 10 days in Auckland. Freja Broughton and Trinity Locke earned the opportunity as finalists in the youth showcase Walk the Line 2026.
At NZ Fashion Week on 22 August, Freja will appear in the Avant Garde category and Trinity in the High Fashion category. This spotlight for their garments – and them – comes on the heels of the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards on 24-25 July in which Freja placed second and MGC’s 14 selections included Trinity and 2025 winner Emily Pitcon.
Freja called her prize “amazing”; she was runner-up in the sustainable fashion category, From the Earth. “However,” she noted, “I was sad to not be there watching it on the runway.”
Fashion Week will be a different story: “I can’t wait for the show on the 22nd of August, where I will be attending not only as a designer but walking my design on runway as well, surrounded by all that the Aotearoa fashion world has to offer!”
Likewise, Trinity said she’s “excited for a new experience” and “pretty thrilled to have made it onto the stage”.
Neither of the Marlburians took the prospect for granted. Freja recalled being “hooked the moment I heard about the NZFW competition and decided to test my luck and send through an application. I never expected to actually get accepted!”
She and Trinity were among 78 designers chosen from among a record 108 entrants in Walk the Line.
“It has been a bit of a stressful process getting my design finished in time for the dress rehearsal we had up in Auckland on Saturday,” Freja shared, “with a multitude of all-nighters and broken needles.”
Both young women have their sights set on progressing in the industry. As Freja expressed, “I only hope to be able to attend this event again in the future, hopefully as a much-better-established designer”.