Last year when we looked back at our top stories, I wrote about the strange but eventful year coming to a close, as if we were saying goodbye to all that. If only we knew what was coming for us in 2022.
I think most would agree that it has been a real rollercoaster of a year, with the uncertainty of Omicron and other historic events both locally and across the world. Things ‘returned to normal’ (whatever that means), we could travel again and many of us in Aotearoa got Covid for the first time. All of that was reflected in the stories we covered; well-written and personal pieces that reflected the times, or, simply, an escape to some lighthearted fun.
Below, the 15 stories that were most read, shared and engaged with; although I wouldn’t want to call them the ‘top’. Mass reach and digital churn is not the Ensemble way, and so while we’re listing the ones that went far, we also wanted to share some stories that quietly burned away in the background, helping to define who we are – keep scrolling for the full list. We have always been about intelligence and whimsy: whether it be the imagery we create and share, the attitude we approach all things, or the journalism we proudly publish.
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15. Please take Kimberley Crossman seriously
Our friend Kath Gould brought this idea to us, having worked with the actor and presenter on various shows as a makeup and hair artist. The pair, with stylist Sammy Salsa, had had a collaborative approach and wanted to photograph and present Kimberley in a way she hadn’t been before. We were stoked to share their project in an Ensemble way – that is, the freedom to be creative – and the results struck a chord with many, who were surprised by the photos and story too.
14. Our favourite looks from the latest new-season collections
In February, we hastily and crazily organised a digital shoppable runway show in as little as 10 days; a way for us to show support for the local industry who were about to be hit hard by lockdowns impacting retail and the cancellation of NZ Fashion Week. We wanted to maximise the huge, country-wide reach of our parent company Stuff, and present some of the coolest new-season garments as part of an easy to shop show that everyone could ‘attend’ and enjoy (no front rows here). The result of our last minute plans was this, The Ensemble Edit.
13. Hey Saraid de Silva, I like your hair
Hair! You all love it. Our 'I Like Your Hair' series features cool people will cool people, sharing the secrets behind their dreamy looks - from curly to shaved to long. We know that hair is deeply personal and can also be political, and we think that's why this column has resonated: embracing the frivilous and serious side of what's on our heads. As arts programmer Liv Stewart said: "It's my permanent accessory". Writer Saraid's hair story was popular - people particularly love to read about curly hair, probably because beauty media has typically been focused on fine, straight (caucasian) strands.
12. Don't be so quick to throw out your masks
Masks became a symbol of so much this year, and this thoughtful and well-balanced essay from Sylvia Giles, published in April, explored their role as “defining the cultural milieu” and the various etiquette surrounding them. “It didn’t take long in the Covid-19 timeline for masks to become a symbol, at the extremes, of either civic duty or oppression. But either way, an icon for an invisible threat,” she wrote. It’s particularly interesting to read this back now, as masks have seemingly disappeared from our daily lives and yet Covid rages on.
11. Let's talk about Jane Campion's comments about Serena and Venus
I’m a fan of Jane Campion, but, like others, was quite shocked to watch her bring up the Williams’ sisters in her acceptance speech at the BAFTA awards in March. In hindsight this piece was written too quickly, but I hope reflected a certain type of white feminism that still managed to rear its ugly head throughout the year. I received lots of feedback to this story, both positive and negative; I was criticised for inserting myself – a white woman – into the conversation rather than allowing a woman of colour the platform to do it, which is a valid critique!
10. Emails from my close and personal friend, Lorde
Good writing has always been essential to the magic of Ensemble: we value the written word as much as we do beautiful imagery, a combination that doesn't necessarily genuinely happen at other fashion titles.
This piece by Bryer Oden, a writer we were lucky to have approach us with some fully thought out ideas (an aside: pitch us! We love pitches!), was just one fabulous essay we were proud to have published this year.
This took something pretty niche in pop culture, and put it into a wider context that explored social media, celebrity and marketing – all of the things we love.
9. This with that: Colour-blocking doesn’t need to be complicated
“Women in motion” and “fashion that’s fun” have always been my go-to ways for describing the type of fashion imagery I want to see on any platform I’m editing. I’m not interested in garments being presented in a posed or unattainable way that doesn’t reflect how we live our lives – fashion is made to be worn, otherwise, it’s art.
This delightful shoot, as part of our inaugural ‘colour week’ and created by our friend Chloe Hill, personifies that approach and I think is why it resonated so widely.
8. The coolest places in Wellington, according to cool Wellingtonians
We were lucky to spend a few days in Wellington this year, meeting some of our friends and readers in the capital and dedicating a whole week to the city on the website for the Ensemble Wellington edit. This very helpful local’s guide was part of that coverage, featuring the actual coolest spots – from food to galleries, shops and gaming cafes. We were told that we featured ‘top tier’ people in this, a very nice compliment.
7. Plant-based milks, blind tested and ranked
We love a niche blind taste test, but this one really pushed our testers to their limits. Almond, oat, hemp, cashew, coconut, soy: they tried them all, gave their reviews and rankings, and felt very sick afterwards.
6. Describing Omicron as ‘mild’ undermines how crap I feel
Rebecca was the first of our small team to test positive for Covid, and has also championed much of our health and wellness coverage – and in March, wrote this brilliant piece that was sort of a convergence of all of that. Once Omicron really hit Aotearoa, we’d had a few impassioned conversations about the importance of rest and this mentality we had noticed of ‘working through it’, and we were annoyed by it all.
“The ongoing insistence at describing Omicron as ‘mild’ enforces another illness of our culture: that of hustle and grind,” she wrote. “In a society where ‘WFH’ has become the new norm, what even is a sick day? And when our ‘leaders’ don’t lead, how are we supposed to rest and get better?”
It’s interesting – and frustrating – to look back on this now, as we hit another wave and the attitude doesn't seem to have changed much at all.
5. My best secondhand purchase ever
One thing that we have learnt about our amazing audience is that they love all forms of fashion – local, luxury, personal style and most of all, vintage. So this simple piece, where cool people shared their best ever op shop purchases, really hit home.
4. Melanie Lynskey has been ready for this moment for years
The NZ born superstar has been on our ‘list’ of dream subjects since we launched Ensemble, and this year we were finally able to make it happen, with the help of some talented LA-based friends. We sent over some pieces from a selection of NZ fashion designers for lovely Melanie to wear for the shoot, and I interviewed her over Zoom where she was a true delight (I’m still convinced we’d be best friends if we ever met IRL). Also published in Sunday magazine (our sister publication), this was just before the Emmys, where she was up for best actress for her role in Yellowjackets.
3. Why I’ve given up on going out
Remember the tracer app, and how we’d assiduously track where we’d been? In March our friend Jess Molina wrote this piece for us, sharing their unique experience in keeping themselves – and others – safe from Covid, by staying at home.
Her beautifully written piece feels like a perfect time capsule of a specific time of 2022: “As someone who had a very active social life pre-pandemic, known for dinners that last until midnight on a Monday and only using my room as a place to crash before I’m up early and out again, outings have now reached a new standard: am I willing to take a risk for this?”
2. Inside Hart Reynolds and Anthony Wiseman’s dreamy beachside wedding
This year we launched Ensemble Weddings, something we’d debated since launch (we found wedding coverage a bit cringe), but have since proven hugely popular. We wanted to show love stories of all types, from lofi to over-the-top, slightly imperfect but always intimate. This charming art and family filled wedding day was the first of many to come.
1. I had omicron. Here’s what I did to get through it
Oh, what a long weird year it has been. At the end of January, when our most widely read story was published, Omicron felt distant but inevitable; with the beginning of community spread and a move ‘back to red’. It was a weird time, as many of us mentally and physically prepared for what we had seen friends and family going through overseas with their Omicron waves.
Our London-based Kiwi friend Anny Ma had shared her list of things that helped her “get through the hell that is the Omicron variant” on Instagram, and I asked her if she might like to expand on that for Ensemble – I wanted an honest, personal and most of all, practical take, to hopefully put it all into perspective. Her story took on another life, widely shared throughout the year as various waves hit Aotearoa.
“The lazy framing of Omicron as ‘mild’ neglects that it’s mild for the vaccinated in comparison to hospitalisation or death – something epidemiologists and doctors were ignored for pointing out,” Anny wrote. “There’s no getting out of a pandemic as an individual – community solutions and care are the only way forward.”
Having quite publicly endorsed our belief in experts and science, we were pleasantly surprised at the popularity of our various Covid related stories this year: later, in May after most of us had our first case, we shared the popular piece headlined, ‘small saviours that got us through’, and there are various other related stories on this list that truly define 2022.
The Best of the Rest
Some Wonderful Writing
Annabel Hawkins on the art of knitting, and slowing down; Sylvia Giles’ moving piece on the symbolism of a ‘grown up handbag’; Amelia Reynolds on hating exercise.
Lonely, duh
This story about the local brand’s sad descent into QAnon was published in December 2020, was one our top stories last year, and continued to reach new audiences in 2022.
Nostalgia!
We love it, and so do you. We asked a few friends of Ensemble to share their vintage summer holiday photos, ball pictures, birthday party outfits and travel photos, in a series we dubbed, ‘me, back then’.
We featured so many of them this year, like 93-year-old artist Jacqueline Fahey (back in February), US rugby player and TikTok star Ilona Maher (November), actor on the rise Erana James (October), musician Marlon Williams (September) and the Dream Girls Art Collective (July).
Signs of the Time
We covered trends and news that were ‘very 2022’, like the closure of Karangahape Road favourite Peach Pit, spring fashion worn on e-bikes, indie sleaze influenced messy makeup, and at home IV vitamin drips.
Zoe’s TikTok trend obsession
I’ve since realised that the churn of TikTok trends is actually grotesque (and many of these ‘trends’ don’t actually exist in real life), but I covered many this year and I hope they at least provided some humour: gremlin girls in the depths of winter, the feminine urge meme (actually from December 2021, but it kept being read into the new year); coastal grandmother and our Screen Time series launched in July. I also recommend revisiting Yawynne Yem’s hilarious and zeitgeist-y essay about relationships and BeReal – the social media platform that really defined 2022.
