There’s an undercurrent of fresh talent getting stronger. For this new generation of BIPOC creators, coming up against adversity has been a common theme in their practice. Pursuing a full-time creative career, whether it be in fashion, jewellery, art or nail design, as a BIPOC often means dealing with internal cultural pressures as well as the obvious challenge of trying to succeed in a creative field.
In this photoshoot, stylist and creative director Nikirei, photographer Abigail Dell'Avo and model and co-stylist Zee captured pieces from an array of local brands owned by BIPOC women, and talked to them about their creative process and more.
Chyna-Lily Tjauw Rawlinson of Chills Jewellery
@____chills
What was your reason for starting your brand/starting to design?
It felt like a natural progression from my art practice, from exhibiting metal sculpture and moving back to Tāmaki. I wanted to reconnect with the generational trade, learning from my father and grandfather [who run Bijoux Gallery]. I also spent a lot of time around the tools growing up and watching each of them create.
How do your family and cultural values influence your art form and practice?
I’m inspired by both of my grandfather's experimentation with copper and sculpture, but I try to put more of a playful spin on it. I use symbols inspired by the natural world and botanical symbolism to represent femininity, shells, sparkles, and stars, which are all playful and reminiscent of childlike exploring.
How would you describe your designs in three words?
Timeless, refined, and playful! It’s hard to define my range because the styles vary; some are dainty, some are chunky, and some can be styled unconventionally, like the waist chains.
But I would say timeless – using solid sterling silver and solid gold, the whole purpose of this is so that the materials have longevity, the metals will always be valuable and can be melted down to be repurposed – which is something I encourage and would love to help clients achieve custom pieces with sentimental materials.
And lastly, playful, the themes of the collections are primarily based on simple natural symbols – stars, sparkles, shells and webs; they are quite childlike and precious.
What obstacles have you encountered while working as a BIPOC woman?
My workshop is also my father's jewellery business, Bijoux, on Ponsonby Rd – I have seen regular customers coming to him for over 30 years. Some customers tend to doubt my experience based on how I look or my age; they assume that I am not as qualified as him. Whereas I am more than capable of helping them with a repair job on the spot to planning a custom piece.
They also don’t recognise me as being his daughter because I don't look like him, so that's one of the reasons why I struggle a little bit with being accessible to that sort of market or clientele.
I find that within my art practice, I have to find the right community spaces where my voice is valued. Meanwhile, with my jewellery at the moment, I can be anonymous to an extent.
What are some ways we can support other BIPOC women creators?
Following along with the content they are producing, attending their openings, or even a comment goes a long way: simply showing your support and engaging with them.
It’s also important to keep producing representations of migrant artists and women, as our historical representation is constructed by Western beauty standards and idealised stereotypes. So, creating this new representation is as important as recognising who it’s by and who it’s for.
Local artists who inspire me;
I’m interested in Claudia Kogachi’s work; she is becoming a lot more recognised now, and she is doing international shows. It’s really exciting to see that she has the opportunity to be sharing her work outside of New Zealand. Another is Brunelle Dias, an oil painter, and her work is incredible; I’m excited to see what she does next!
How do you feel about being an inspiration to younger BIPOC women creators, as it is still taboo to pursue a career in the arts?
I didn’t even think about being a potential inspiration to younger POC artists, and that warms my heart that someone would see my work and feel inspired to share their voice or their mahi.
It’s natural to doubt yourself; there's a sense of isolation in being an artist, but there is power in self-reflection, it’s how you progress your work.
Having a creative outlet is important; for me, it's a big part of self-care. Forming a physical object after thinking and theorising about the content is empowering for me and my progress.
Jenny Ruan, fashion designer
@zheyi.ruan
How did you get into fashion?
I used to always answer with one word: consumerism.
You wanted to consume more or you wanted to attack consumerism?
Not attack it, I was full on with it. I love shopping. Like, I really love shopping.
You moved here from China by yourself in high school. How does that reflect into your work? Do you bring your culture into your practice?
From time to time. I am proud to claim my heritage but sometimes people only see us as Asian designers but they don’t see your work a lot of the time. I want people to see my work. It’s great that you recognise me as an Asian designer, that again is a generalised term. I want my personal identity to be recognised as well.
You went back home recently. What’s the difference in the art scene here and in China that you noticed?
In China, in the creative field, they have figured out a formula for everything. ‘How to be’ or ‘what to do’ to achieve something. It’s so crazy. Everything is measurable result oriented. It's hard to put it in words but if you have been through some time in education in China, you would understand what I mean.
If you look up tips on how to get through a certain bachelor or master degree applications, for example, they will show you how to make samples and portfolios in a certain style that will get you accepted. You can easily access amateur databases that tell you, if you do this or make your project about this, you will get accepted into this school rather than that school; the lecture in this school loves good tailoring, the lecture in that school marks heavy on silhouettes. Then people adjust their projects accordingly. And that is the ultimate goal. It's a very result focused business-like mindset. It kills genuine creativity.
It’s a bit extreme because now, you can even buy textile samples off the internet and people use it as their portfolio application. People make it for you. Where’s the creativity? It’s very transactional and calculative. Every other course is out there to teach you how to become an influencer. To become rich, to become good at something in the utmost result oriented way.
How is that different from the culture here?
It’s a bit more organic and diverse here. You find inspiration, experiment yourself. They usually teach you a base level skill that you can do, and you do your own development. But then over there, all of that has already been done by someone; they have concluded research experience for you to just copy to get the result.
How can we create a safe space in our industry? How can we enable people from different social calibres or skill calibres to intermingle with each other?
In general I think everyone should be more open about new ideas and be kind to each other, for the greater community. From a personal standpoint – it's easier said than done – I stick to the fake it until you make it thing. You do have to go around and socialise and get to know people. There’s a saying that you learn through mimicry. Think of it as everyone will have to start somewhere, and everyone has been through a phase like where you are.
I agree and that comes with work ethic and being genuine to your work then you will just naturally attract people. Talking about the differences in learning how to make art in China and here in NZ, how does that apply to you? It sounds like you create more organically and with genuine meaning but I want to hear it in your own words.
I don’t even know if my words or my work can hold that much power haha. We are all individuals with dimensions and depths. It's impossible to fully understand one another or express your feelings, because we are all forever changing in different phases, even though it is difficult, it is also thrilling to be your absolute original self and that is most exciting about expressing yourself in a creative way.
Angela Kong of KONG
@angekongg
Tell me about yourself.
I will start by saying that I’ve been doing art for as long as I can remember. My mum owned a clothing company in China, which specialised in children’s clothing. My dad was a Chinese artist and journalist, specialising in photography and painting. I also have some extended relatives with creative careers, so pretty much, I think me becoming an artist was predispositional, something I’ve been surrounded with since a young age.
You recently held an exhibition for Pride Month – tell me about that!
Copper, from the MaeSteal Collective, and I collaborated to bring an exhibition where we displayed a range of individuals from different backgrounds and expressions of self into one room. It was an excellent opportunity for me and other amazing creatives to show their vulnerability. This was Canvas’ of Identity, held at Studio Toi Tu during Pride Month. For my section, I decided to use calligraphy as my medium to paint my baby Pixel [her cat] because I love him so much and he is my moon baby. Also I crocheted and knitted around a porcelain doll, creating a dress for it. I used Chinese beading style techniques my mum taught me. She also taught me other craft techniques such as felting and embroidery.
Where do you look for your inspiration as an artist and creative?
I take a lot of inspiration from the art mediums and immense work ethics of my parents. For example, I take on calligraphy taught by my uncle; who’s a popular calligraphy artist in China, but my dad taught me the roots of calligraphy. Also as I mentioned, my mum teaching me many craft techniques has always been the stem of my creative journey. My dad actually owns a frame shop on Karangahape Road that sells mirrors and his artworks, which the store is considered ‘OG’ here for over 35 years. And that’s how I developed my business skills and learnt how to preserve my art/clothing to a wider audience.
How would you describe your creative process?
Creative process wise, I like to add rather than subtract. I rarely use a rubber to erase the lines I draw, so I add more strokes and this in turn creates a different direction towards the final outcome. Kind of like an accumulation of paint strokes, I like to unravel the transition from nothing recognisable to an artistic form of expression.
What would you describe as an obstacle in this journey as an artist/creative?
With a successful father relating to business, and a famous uncle in China relating to calligraphy, I would say there’s this subtle yet obvious pressure of levelling or surpassing their notoriety in their respective art fields.
At times, I struggle between wanting to be highly successful in the public eye and branching out into international spaces and surpassing this familial generation of artists, however simultaneously aiming to be as authentic, true to oneself but showcasing my art direction in a rebellious, against-the-grain way.
What is something you would like to see in the local small business/creative scene?
I would like to embody and perhaps inspire others of balancing ethical practices of craftsmanship, yet creating space for a viable business in this tough time, especially for small businesses. I understand that the reality of physical markets and online businesses can get brutal especially if you don’t have the funding to continue your work at your best, and maybe you’ll try your hardest to even slip under the limelight. But being in the limelight comes with a cost. However, I believe there’s always space for people and as long as we uplift one another, which allows a good surrounding for amazing craftsmanship and fair businesses to thrive. From here, we can create this circularity of compassion to go around!
Tiffany Ear of Nails by T
@nailsssbyttt
How did you get to this point with nails? Talk me through your back story.
It started as a hobby. I always used to get my nails done constantly since I was young – like 15 or 16 – and then I was at uni studying fashion design and Covid happened, so I couldn’t get my nails done. I was just like ‘Damn, I could probably just do it myself’.
I ended up just buying cheap shit to get started and began practising drawing on nails at home. People started seeing it online and everyone was like, ‘You should start doing nails on other people’. I realised I could actually make money off this.
When uni finished, I started working while still doing nails on the side. It got to the point where I was like “f..k my job’ and all I ever thought about was my nails. I go to sleep thinking about it. I needed to do something about it so I took the risk to start doing it full time. I started my lease on my studio in May last year and I put it together in a month.
Why did you start getting your nails done so young?
I grew up with my mum always getting hers done and I would go with her to the salon. My mum and my aunties always like getting pampered – I was surrounded by it.
Pampering yourself is such an Asian mum thing – like a form of bonding and spending time with you. Is there anything else that your mum or your parents taught you while you were growing up that influence your work now?
When my parents immigrated here after the Cambodian wars and genocide, they came here as refugees. It was a second chance in life, and being in a new country, they wanted to live as luxurious as possible and make as much money as possible so that my sister and I will never have to go through the same hardships as they did when they were younger.
So my parent’s work ethic is crazy – they’ve been working 60 hours every week for the past 25 years. I always grew up watching them work and seeing how hard they work to be able to do what they want to do. Not necessarily buying luxury or living lavishly, but to live the way they live now especially compared to what they grew up with. That always influenced me to work hard. And if you know Cambodians, you know they love their designer brands and dressing up – I guess that influenced me to get into fashion too.
Were your parents always supportive of you pursuing a creative career? You know how it's still stereotypically taboo to pursue something you’re passionate about in Asian families?
Not at first! Growing up, I told them I wanna be a fashion designer, photographer or interior designer, it was always something creative. They would always be like ‘why don’t you just be a doctor or something?’.
I was always focused on academics and wanting to get the best grades but I knew I wasn’t actually really passionate about it, I just wanted to do something creative. Every now and then my dad would bring up a conversation like, ‘Why don’t you do accounting while doing nails?’ They didn’t really realise how serious I was about this until I sorted this place out [nail studio]. I still don’t think they fully understand what I do now. They think I just paint colours on someone all day – there’s so much more than that. They’ve accepted it more because I’m a ‘business owner’ and that means a little bit more to them than just being a nail artist.
What are your favourite inspirations when thinking of concepts to paint?
When I first started I took a lot of inspiration from music and album covers, or fashion designers and logos. Because no one was doing that, no one was putting a face on a nail or Margiela on a nail. And I should do that and there’s gonna be a certain group of people who’s gonna fuck with that. I always love incorporating fashion and nails especially when designing for myself.
That’s a different kind of skill though. Your brushes have two or three strands of hair and considering that, it’s not a normal canvas to work on. It’s really impressive. So what are your goals as a creative now?
I don’t have any end goal but I do want to collaborate with more artists and different brands. I want to do more editorial work.
It’s a missed opportunity when a detail like nails can further expand the concept. It’s a very underrated form of art and beauty, and a detail that’s often missed in fashion editorials, for sure.
Yeah – I think not a lot of people have the eye for that. You see a jewellery brand and they’re showing off rings and some people won’t notice the nails aren’t done or the cuticles aren’t cut but it makes such a difference. It looks unfinished. I think now, more people are getting into nail art and nails in general when it comes to fashion and accessories. It took ages for NZ to really step up its nail game.
Zhi of Prototype
@prototype.c0m
Would you call yourself an artist/creative?
I don’t see myself as an ‘artist’. I don’t have any sort of deep lore about why I decided to pursue this path because I feel how I started this brand isn’t as in-depth or meaningful compared to other artists that I’ve encountered.
What was the reason behind starting Prototype?
During lockdown, I found that it was a great time to invest in a hustle, especially since small businesses were booming on TikTok. I was driven to make money through a side-hustle while studying law. Before Prototype, I had a business previously known as Toxic Jewellery where I made customised necklaces with beading sourced from websites like Aliexpress etc. But since there was such a high demand for my jewellery, over time I couldn’t handle the huge influx of orders which caused me to stress out. I also felt this part of my life began to feel superficial and unfulfilling so I decided to step away for a bit to redirect.
What did you do after you decided to move on?
I took a silver jewellery workshop hosted by Dangerous Goods, which I really enjoyed because it was a very rewarding process: seeing silver take form and seeing how versatile it can be. From there, I considered investing my time and effort into this slower pace of craft.
As uni started to get more hectic with my law degree, this new tempo of my business transformed into my release from the chaos. Making jewellery from scratch felt much more gratifying compared to before. I think the difference between my previous ‘fast-fashion’ pace to slow craftsmanship became an indicator of my life progression.
What would be your unique obstacle(s) as a creative?
I have massive imposter syndrome. I wouldn’t say my jewellery brand is boxed to a certain style/category; though I see some artists seem to have things figured out in terms of their style, ethos and purpose. I’m not diagnosed but I do struggle with ADHD tendencies, and I feel the reason why I can’t seem to hone into a particular style is because I constantly take in inspirations.
We seem to underestimate the time it takes for an artist to reach a certain point along their never-ending journey of creation. But I think it goes both ways in the sense we ourselves fail to see how far we have come in our creative journey. After all, what it means to be an artist or creative is to constantly trial and error, try new styles, refine through time or even try a new style, regardless of time.
Felicia Ysabelle of Sabado Studios
@sabado_studios
@feliciaaduque
What’s the reason behind the name, Sabado?
Sabado means Saturday in Tagalog/Spanish. Saturdays aren’t serious; they’re just fun and kind of youthful, and that's what I wanted to represent with my work. I wanted to have fun with the actual design and experiment, be a little more carefree and not overthink it! Also, it's a nice reference to my Filipino culture.
If you had to describe your brand in three words…
Not too serious!
How can we support other BIPOC creatives/artists?
Recently, I had a coffee with Chyna from Chills – we’ve been mutuals for ages but we finally had a chat, and a lot of our conversation was centred around how we can support each other.
I think a good way to help support each other is just having a coffee and a chat because it’s so important to be open to making those connections and putting effort into them.
It is so much more important to make those friendships rather than superficial shows of support; if you admire someone's work, you should befriend them and grow your relationship. There's nothing wrong with having a purely business type of relationship, but if we want to make lasting relationships with people and build a stronger community with people, it should start by having a conversation.
How do you feel about pursuing something creative, given it is stereotypically taboo in our culture?
I definitely get the taboo part! Like pursuing a full-time creative career. Growing up, I’ve always been artsy and studious, never the valedictorian, but I’ve always had a split-interest, and my parents have always supported both sides.
I am the oldest kid of young parents, so there was definitely pressure to succeed and to be an example. My parents have always supported both interests, and although I’m sure they would have still supported me otherwise they didn’t exactly complain when I chose to study engineering in university. From a very young age, I always understood that even though I loved art and expression through fashion, I was never going to pursue it fully because I was already aware of what that meant in terms of financial stability. I felt the pressure but it wasn’t outright vocalised or demanded.
Now that I am doing a corporate job but still managing to pursue a creative thing on the side, I don’t know if that was helpful for me to achieve because now my parents are like - you can do both! Why would you pursue something creative when you can do both right now? It kind of backfired a little bit haha! That’s definitely not something to complain about though. I am so blessed to be in the situation that I’m in, which makes it so difficult to fully commit to something creative.
I understand the taboo part and why a lot of younger people feel held back or pressured to do something; let's be super stereotypical Filipino and say nursing. I get that. It’s hard, especially for young people, feeling like you have to sacrifice either family and community over your passion. This struggle is also extra hard to understand when you’re young, but I think this is a shared experience between all young Filipinos, and everyone takes something different from this experience.
Do you have any advice for people pursuing something creative?
Back yourself up, and if you can’t find support from your family, find support from your friends or community. The topic of family is so complex because there is a lot of guilt in owing them or paying them back for their hard work. But sometimes, you must be selfish, especially if it impacts your well-being.
There's also a big difference between Western and Asian culture; in Western culture, it is like ‘I am my own island’, whereas in Asian culture, you are a representation of your family; everything you do, links back to your family, it's not just for you, it’s for your ancestry and stuff like that as well.
Is there anything from Filipino values/culture that has translated into your practice?
One thing I mentioned earlier briefly was resourcefulness; a lot of Filipino culture is built on being resourceful because a lot of people have always tried to use us, trying to take over and influence us and infiltrate us.
Obviously, this is 100% not comparable to actually being colonised back in the day, but I think the idea of looking at what you have and making the best out of it, which is what we’ve historically done as a nation, is what I’m trying to do. It most obviously applies to time and materials; I look at what I have and try to make the most out of it. This relates to my sustainability goals also; I make an effort to re-use scraps and other types of fabric in my work.
The other thing is hard work; which informs a lot of my life. I appreciate the value of putting in the time to get something right rather than finding the easy way out. Hard work and resourcefulness, those are two things that inform my business.
Natasha Ovely of Starving Artists Fund
@starvingartistsfund
What was your reason for starting the brand, or to design?
It felt like a need at the time and a natural form of how I wanted to communicate and process my own thoughts.
How would you describe your designs in three words?
Intuitive, sculptural, protective.
Where do you see your brand/designs in the future?
I recently made the decision to end SAF after a beautiful six-year journey. Fashion is such an over-saturated and disposable landscape at the moment. In the face of world events, particularly Palestine and yet another recession, I’ve struggled to connect with it meaningfully and no longer feel the sense of urgency to put my work out into the world. There are so many voices fighting to be heard in what feels like a sea of white noise.
These are a few reasons that led to my decision. I'm still working through it myself but I feel that it is the right decision for myself and the brand at this moment.
I hope that the spirit of SAF will live on and its absence makes room for new creatives to occupy this space. Just as designers before me paved the way for me to do the same.
I’m looking forward to creating in private and solely for my own enjoyment for a while.
Who are some other BIPOC or women artists that you look up to?
Brunelle Dias, Keagan Carr Fransch, Emma Jing, Claudia Kogachi, Dan Ahwa, Jessica Palalagi, Tui Emma Gillies & Sulieti Fieme’a Burrows, Susan Leonard, Batanai Mashingaidze, Saraid de Silva, Chloe Weavers, Kadambari Gladding, Raimana Jones, Tallulah Mclean (Look Bomb), Michelle Abraham, Jess Scott, Megha Kapoor, Nomuna Amarbat to name a few locally.
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Stylist and creative director: Nikirei
Photographer: Abigail Dell'Avo
Model and co-stylist: Zee from Noir The Agency
Model: Adam Banoori from Unique Model Management
Shoot assistants: Noelle Nayon and Varit Khampantip
With thanks to Public Library
