This story is part of Ensemble's fashion week coverage, supported by Viaduct Harbour
It's fair to say after a week of working and celebrating at NZ Fashion Week, we'd worked up quite an appetite.
On Friday afternoon, short on sleep after Kate Sylvester's memorable after-party, we parked up the Viaduct Harbour's hot pink golf cart outside yum cha institution Grand Harbour and settled in for a slightly dusty, but very fun lunch.
We were there to celebrate a trio of special Ensemble milestones: making it through NZFW, yes, but also our recent third birthday and the official launch of our much anticipated Caitlin Snell x Ensemble bow (join the party by snapping yours up here).
What we lacked in initial get up and go, we made up for in aesthetic vision. The table was laid with a very on brand pink tablecloth and armfuls of flowers from the dairy were arranged in rustic posies on in the middle of the table.
Our crafty collaborator Caitlin Snell was the first to join the party, bringing with her a box full to the brim of our purple bows. We wasted no time using them to pin back our hair so we could pick up our chopsticks and get down to the serious business of eating.
It was a return to a tried and true favourite for some, and an introduction for others. Tova O'Brien had never been to Grand Harbour before and Ensemble reporter Tyson Beckett can't remember going when she wasn't hungover.
Fashion friends like designers Heather Brennan Evans and Catherine Boddy (fresh from closing the Zambesi show), Craccum editor Mairātea Mohi, PR girlie and Ensemble contributor Yawynne Yem and Roxie Mohebbi (who the night before had walked in the Kate Sylvester show) joined us around the lazy susan to share a rounds of dumplings, and musings on the week.
Over siu mai and har gow we discussed the shows, the industry and the state of the world. Sensing that we could all use a health injection, Sammy Saxton-Beer ordered a round of freshly pressed watermelon juices for the table and the fluffy pink elixir perked everyone up just in time for the dessert trolley to roll by.
After the last ice cream ball and mango pancake had been gobbled up, we walked out of the restaurant into the sun feeling full, re-invigorated and happy.
