It has been… quite a year. I pretty much wrote the same thing 12 months ago when reflecting on our top stories for 2022 (“I think most would agree that it has been a real rollercoaster of a year”; lol joke was on me!), but 2023 really did take us for a ride full of highs and lows.

Our small core Ensemble team of four – the majority part-time; something people probably don’t realise when considering our output – dealt with a lot this year, both personally and professionally, and I’m incredibly proud and grateful for their resilience, hard work and humour. It’s no secret that the media landscape was (still is?) in a real state of flux, with restructuring at all major companies, and we were not immune to these changes. But we kept typically chaotically calm and carried on, creating thoughtful and entertaining stories, producing beautiful imagery and hosting some very fun events – staying true to our Ensemble ethos of intelligence and whimsy (that is: serious fun), while our audience and commercial partnerships reached new heights.

We’ll be taking a break over the holiday to recharge, and look forward to what comes next in 2024 – but before we do that, we wanted to look back on the stories that resonated most with you, from well-written personal essays and op-eds to fashion coverage that you just won’t find anywhere else. Plus lots of politics, done our way. 

In the past, we’ve approached this as a list but I’m gonna be honest with you: this year’s top stories were all over the place. And we’ve always said that we prefer to consider engagement rather than number of clicks. So instead, this year I’ve read the data and looked at what themes emerged – and what they say about this wild year that was 2023…

Money and work

We’re fans of Refinery29’s addictive money diaries, and have long talked about how we can cover money in a way that feels fresh to Ensemble, realistic and, most  importantly, honest. It’s hard to get New Zealanders to talk openly about money! We dipped a toe into the convo with two very well-read fashion week money diaries,  because we knew that money is a huge part of the event that’s rarely discussed – “The cost of putting on the shows themselves, the cost of the outfits of those in the crowd, but also the costs outlaid by those giving up their time to walk the runway, show the front row to their seats and ready the models backstage,” wrote Tyson.

We were so thankful for the frankness from model Hope Phillips, who shared how much they spent and made during Fashion Week – an eye-opening look at how little models are financially reimbursed for very visible and important work for our fashion industry (editorial rates are also terrible, we admit that). We think there’s more to explore with this – particularly around AI imagery and usage rights – and look forward to reporting more in 2024.

Work was also a big drawcard for our readers this year, but Ensemble is never going to be about #girlboss hustle culture or stereotypical career success. In July Janhavi Gosavi wrote the funny but insightful piece Conversation starters that aren’t about your job, which struck a chord with many, while in April, Hamilton City Councillor Louise Hutt wrote brilliantly about The politics of fitting in at work. “...The patriarchy still perseveres and so does the image of who is an elected representative,” she wrote. I think this will actually become even more contentious with Aotearoa’s new conservative and very male trio of power. It’s fitting that one of our most-shared Instagram posts of the year featured quotes from Jacinda Ardern’s final speech from parliament. 

Blind taste-tests

We began these in 2021, but this year really saw us put our colleagues’ stomachs to the test – from hot cross buns taste-tested by overseas friends who had never tried them to canned coffees. But the most popular by far was also a true embodiment of intelligence and whimsy: bread and butters, ahead of Labour’s bread and butter budget. 

“Bread and butter may be the simplest of meals, but this year it has become positively slathered with political and social connotations,” we wrote. “From rising inflation impacting the ever increasing cost of living and food costs to politicians capitalising on the so-called authenticity of the phrase to connect with potential voters, bread and butter has never been so popular.”

Lorde, in a new light

Like Melanie Lynskey last year, Lorde aka Ella Yelich-O’Connor has been on our ‘Ensemble hit list’ of Kiwis we wanted to feature since we launched – and this year, it finally happened, albeit in slightly surreal circumstances. We photographed the star ahead of her The Solar Power Aotearoa tour and right after the Auckland Anniversary floods; days before, the studio we shot at had housed neighbours whose homes had been impacted by flooding; the day of, there were still towels in corners of the building.

When the story came out it went ‘viral’, with TikTok, Pop Crave on Twitter and overseas outlets picking up on Lorde’s comments to writer Clem de Pressigny about her much-anticipated fourth album. 2023 didn’t end up seeing new material from the star (there is still time of course), but the interview and beautiful images captured by Matt Hurley helped build buzz and saw Ensemble reach new audiences.

Produced with our friends at Sunday magazine back in February, this story and shoot truly feels like it was published a lifetime ago.

We had the pleasure of interviewing so many cool women this year, including musicians Weyes Blood, Muna, Bic Runga and Blondshell, actor and controversial podcaster Dasha Nekrasova, writer and podcaster Kelechi Okafor, and footballer and artist Hannah Wilkinson.

Politics!

It was a hectic political year, and of course we covered it in our own unique way. In January, Jacinda Ardern announced her bombshell resignation and I wrote about her use of the art of power dressing and political image making, a combination of two of my loves, politics and fashion (I forced myself to approach Chris and Chris and their ties in the same way; I’m yet to write about Luxon’s use of clothing but I promise I will). Tyson also wrote one of my favourite pieces of the year that also combined even more of my favourite nerdy things, politics, language and the media: Headlines about Jacinda Ardern’s resignation, ranked by how emotional they are.

In March, Georgie Wright went along to Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau's 40th birthday party with a killer opening line: “Tory Whanau wants to make an entrance.”

And ahead of the election, we encouraged our audience and the NZ fashion industry to get out and vote, with several pieces that went far and wide. Our “fluff piece” asking three Wellington Central candidates to share where they spend their time and money got quite a few older white men hot and bothered. 

We also released the results of our Very Scientific Ensemble Election Poll, and the results were bleak but hopeful, and we also asked the key parties to answer your political questions. Labour, the Greens and ACT replied; National and NZ First ignored us.

We also used the opportunity of NZ Fashion Week: Kahuria being scheduled just ahead of the election to get fashion people talking local politics. Tyson talked to guests about the issues they cared about and one charming interviewee in particular caught the eye of TikTok. And I took the three main Auckland Central candidates to shows, with a story that was both extremely fun and dauntingly stressful to overwrite.  

The curious case of the Kiwi designer and the duplicate dresses

In February we co-published this investigative piece with the Sunday Star Times, about fashion designer Adrian Hailwood and a series of identical designs appearing on fast fashion sites including Alibaba, Shein, Boohoo, ASOS, Urban Revivo, Amazon and AliExpress. Reported by award-winning journalist Dana Johannsen, it explored various intricacies of the fashion industry and manufacturing that don’t often get airtime in mainstream media – from the realities of offshore manufacturing to the ethics of ‘white label’ design. Some in the industry were mad at us for publishing it, and it sparked conversations (and unfounded accusations) about the prevalence of similar practices from other designers.

Very Ensemble

I think we’re at our best when we’re taking fashion and lifestyle reporting seriously (like the Hailwood story above) – and, equally, when we are serious about complete silliness. This year that included surprisingly moving essays from creative noses on what their street smells like, Tyson’s ode to the grapefruit Fruju, Bryer Oden’s ode to Dracula, our ‘doll week’ to mark the release of the Barbie film, fashion designers ‘reviewing’ the fashion emojis, and, what might be my magnum opus, my ode (and farewell) to the unsung star of NZ Fashion Week, the giant heel.

Ensemble Weddings

We love love, and you really love our weddings. This year’s cohort was a delightful mixed bag, from the ‘kitsch Valentine’s prom’ in NYC to the garden wedding that cost less than $500.

Personal style

Like weddings, you also love a looksie at what other ‘real’ people are wearing – from street style to our popular ‘party people’ series at events and parties. The most popular surprised but truly delighted us: Girls to the front! What people wore to Bikini Kill's first NZ concert. We also talked to some adorable Harry Styles superfans about the DIY outfits they were creating for the concert (can you believe that was this year??!!!).

The return of NZ Fashion Week: Kahuria saw the return of old-school street style outside the shows, but we wanted to share what people were wearing around Auckland too, and you particularly loved seeing what we were wearing to NZFW.

Brainy beauty

We try to do beauty differently to other lifestyle titles, with less of a focus on PR and product. This year, that meant several well-received stories – our I Like Your Hair series continued, with the most widely read being illustrator Caz Novak and her glorious grey hair, and we launched the first in our new series about people’s ‘life in beauty’, starting off with Kristine Crabb. Lara’s piece, going deep on going blonde, was another favourite this year – taking beauty, often considered frivolous and lightweight, seriously, and offering some real fascinating insight.

It was the same deal with our story and shoot inspired by crystals, which really embodied the marriage of smart and beautiful: Mairātea Mohi wrote about Gen Z’s new very online approach to spirituality, while the accompanying photography by Guy Coombes, featuring beauty inspired by gemstones and created by Kiekie Stanners, is one of my most favourite shoots we’ve published.

‍Body image

Given Ensemble’s position in the “women’s interest” space, and our ambition to disrupt it, body image is an important topic that we’ve explored since launch. This year, we were proud to publish several brilliantly thoughtful pieces, and they clearly resonated with a lot of you too – including Samantha Mythen on getting nude and its power in helping with body image, Fiona Ralph on learning to love her rounded puku and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith on ‘second puberty’ and grieving her teenage body.

Bows!

Bows may be everywhere (on ice cubes, on a plane, on Pak ‘n’ Save trolleys) as the year comes to a close, but we were ahead of the pack with our bow obsession: bossily writing that you need a big bow in April, releasing a hair bow in collaboration with Caitlin Snell in September, and creating our own giant bow in October.