NEW MATERNITY CAMPAIGN: ‘WE SEE YOU, WARRIOR’

Australian maternity brand Cake Maternity has launched a new campaign aimed at showcasing the realities of motherhood on social media. The “We See You, Warrior” campaign encourages mothers to share unfiltered moments on Instagram to build a supportive community.

Cake Maternity has a no photoshopping policy and is working with birth photographer Dania Lauren to capture mothers in their most intimate moments. Tracey Montford, founder of Cake Maternity, said the campaign was about reminding mothers that “they are doing their best, which is incredible.”

March 8th marks International Women's Day and to celebrate, we are spotlighting influential women working in the fashion and beauty industry.

Owner of her namesake womenswear label, Caitlin Crisp has been sewing since she was 12 years old. Surrounded by positive role models in both business and fashion, Crisp was encouraged to follow her dreams of becoming a fashion designer.

“It's something I had dreamed of and worked toward since I was around 12, a passion that I got from my late grandmother,” she explained.

Crisp’s journey into the fashion industry was slow and organic. She described herself as the classic example of taking 10 years to become an overnight success. After studying fashion in high school and university, Crisp moved to Auckland and worked in fashion retail. She entered Project Runway, which pushed her to make oneoff pieces and complete alterations for

Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet is arguably one of the most influential names in New Zealand Fashion. With an illustrious career of more than thirty years as the creative force behind WORLD, Dame Denise has come a long way since her upbringing in London.

Dame Denise attended evening classes for dressmaking as a teenager in the United Kingdom, and in particular enjoyed the creative process of making something from nothing.

“To watch a garment unfold into 3D from a 2D sketch is quite amazing, and not as easy as one might think. When you have a creative personality, you have to have an outlet, whatever that may be, some have more than one creative outlet.”

After finishing school, Dame Denise would go into office work. Although customers at the store she worked at.

“That grew a little busier so I started putting small runs of my designs into production, while working in retail part-time and nannying in the evenings. Those runs got a little bigger and we started stocking at fashion retailers.”

Fast forward a couple years, Crisp now designs clothing full-time with her team of five.

Crisp continues to look up to Deval Boutique’s Debbie Lawson, who she worked for during her first internship in the fashion industry.

“She is an incredible lady. She brings so much joy to those around her and is extremely talented at what she does.”

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For the last decade, Kate Berry has been the company director and managing director of Huffer, a unisex brand with 15 stores across New Zealand and Melbourne. Her journey into the fashion and retail industry began after working in FMCG for 14 years.

She joined Huffer at a time when the business needed extra support, helping the company to create a strategic plan for growth. Although Berry found her role tough initially as she lacked industry experience, she was able to gain a wealth of industry knowledge by learning from the bottom up through unpacking boxes, attending product development meetings, touching garments and listening to experienced professionals.

“I found it difficult to navigate at times as the business was still quite small back then. However, I surrounded myself she was earning good money, she was bored with the office environment.

She later attended the London College of Fashion, which is now known as the University of the Arts London, as a full-time student for two years. She admits that she did not know exactly what it would entail, but she was a fast learner.

“I made some horrific outfits but made some wonderful friends that I still keep in touch with today, we laugh about what we created now, but it's all a learning curve.”

After her studies, she got a job working for the late Scott Crolla, whom she describes as ‘the darling of Dover Street in the 80s.’

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with experts and learnt from them. This experience allowed me to develop a huge amount of resilience and now I have an immense passion for what I do.”

Berry also leaned on her transferable skills attained from working in FMCG, utilising her strengths in structure and strategic plan to help Huffer expand.

She continues to look up to other successful brands and retailers in the clothing industry for inspiration. As she is involved in the day to day of fashion, seeing and hearing success stories from other companies helps to motivate her to give her all to Huffer.

“We also have an incredibly talented team at Huffer. Our success comes from them. They are the reason why I enjoy my job so much and why I come to work.”

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Lisette Godinez has always been fascinated by what motivates people to do the things that they do - including why they decide to purchase certain products, follow a certain lifestyle, or stay loyal to particular brands.

“Marketing is understanding the psychology behind consumer behaviour and this is what naturally led me to study and pursue a career in marketing.”

Now a marketing chapter member at The Warehouse Group, Godinez remains passionate about contributing to the success and growth of an organisation, understanding customer needs, and formulating marketing strategies to meet those needs.

Her path into marketing began when she worked as a communications coordinator for professional beauty and haircare brand, Zotos International,

After spending a decade as a florist, Sophie Cooper remembers that one of her favourite floristry jobs was for a woman who also owned a soap manufacturing business. Seizing the opportunity to also sell soaps and bath bombs alongside flowers, Cooper quickly fell in love with beauty products.

When she was eight months pregnant with her child and about to go on maternity leave, Cooper’s boss decided to sell her soap making business. She jokingly suggested to her husband that they purchase the business, which eventually led her to have a new baby and a new business, a few months later.

“I’ve always loved creating beautiful things and bringing joy to people. I think the simple act of self care is so important for our well-being,” said after graduation. Godinez worked in communications for two years before deciding to change paths. Taking on a new role as the associate international marketing manager, she quickly realised that marketing was her calling.

Alongside working full-time, she enriched her knowledge of the marketing industry by completing a Master’s in Business Administration. Godinez collaborated closely with international customers, regularly travelling around the world to gain first-hand knowledge about the export business, including to Latin America, Asia and eventually to New Zealand.

Cooper.

During the first year and a half of operating the soap business, Cooper was a contract manufacturer. However, she decided to create her own brand, “Ahhh”, which was named after the sound people make when they get in the bath to relax at the end of the day. In 2021, Cooper rebranded Ahhh to “anihana”, which was her daughter’s middle name and her husband’s late mother’s maiden name.

An important motivator for Cooper is bringing joy into the everyday with anihana’s products. She also noted that promoting sustainable processes is another important motivator.

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Jennifer Del Bel has been making candles for over a decade. Her first candle company was Illumina, before she opened Downlights, a soy candle company and social enterprise that supports young adults with Down syndrome and intellectual or learning disabilities.

The idea for Downlights came to Del Bel four years ago when she was introduced to a family who were struggling to find employment for their daughter with Down syndrome.

“Not one company would return their email or phone call. This deeply affected me. I was at a turning point in my life and I decided to completely change my business model,” said Del Bel.

Utilising her intellectual property, contacts and manufacturing experience she had obtained from Illumina, Del Bel started Downlights with the objective of supporting the development of workplace skills for young adults with disabilities.

During Downlights’ first year of operation, she met Grace Stratton and Dr. Robbie Francis Watene, who guided Del Bel through the steps of learning to advocate for the Downlights crew. She also worked with Amy and Sheridan from Recreate, who helped to support her through every learning curve.

“The parents of the Downlights crew were also incredibly supportive and worked closely with me to develop the best work environment for their children to thrive.”

Del Bel said that her biggest motivation is seeing the personal milestones that her Downlights crew achieve every day.

Kowtow is a Wellington-based label that is proud to produce clothing that has sustainability in mind. The woman behind this initiative is Gosia Piatek, the founder of Kowtow.

Despite making a name for herself in the industry, Piatek admits that she was not drawn to fashion originally, and was more inclined to want to start a business which created social and environmental change for the better.

“I felt that wearing clothing was a basic need, so why not try and stir some change within fashion.”

Having started Kowtow sixteen years ago, she has performed in every role needed for the business. She has been a dispatcher, a seller, a producer, and a designer, and now has grown her company to 45 staff. She no longer works in the office full time, having

During Natalie Procter’s last year of her fashion degree, she travelled to India on a Prime Minister’s Scholarship. For Procter, her six week seed-to-garment trip was not only eye-opening, but a key turning point in her life and career.

“The experience made me think ‘do I get out of this industry, which appears to be doing nothing good for people or the planet, or do I get into this industry to do things differently and with intention?”

She chose to go with the latter and Procter’s experience in India continues to be the “why” behind everything that she does.

To get stuck into the fashion industry, she interned with a number of local fashion brands in Wellington and Auckland. This experience gave Procter insight into the reality of opening her own brand, which was always a dream of hers.

She now owns and is the creative director of Mina, an Auckland-based fashion label that is committed to producing long-lasting and sustainable clothing that also supports local businesses.

Even if Procter was given a chance to start over, she would not change anything about her journey into the fashion industry.

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moved back to Prague with her family recently.

She started Kowtow from a burning desire in her heart to do good and admits she wanted to disrupt an industry and shine a positive light on how things could have been done better.

“I chose the fashion industry and we have worked with our amazing Indian partners to make clothing within a Fairtrade and organic cotton-certified supply chain.”

When speaking of her biggest inspirations, Piatek says that Greta Thunberg’s advocacy has been a big influence, especially the spotlight she has shined on climate change.

Innovation manager at Essano Beauty, Marissa Kan knew from a young age that she wanted to work in the beauty industry. After observing her mum’s makeup and skincare rituals, Kan was inspired by the power of skincare and beauty products, particularly its ability to make people feel confident in their own skin. She also feels that the beauty industry is constantly evolving with new trends and technological developments, making it an exciting and fast-paced industry to work in.

Kan’s journey to working in beauty and skincare began after graduating university, where she was accepted into a graduate programme with Daymon Worldwide, private consultants for Progressive Enterprises, which is now Woolworths New Zealand. Her experience in the graduate programme was invaluable as it provided Kan insight into all aspects of Woolworths’ business, beginning her love affair for product development.

To further her knowledge about the beauty industry, Kan also completed a makeup artistry course in her evenings after work. This led Kan to obtain a role with leading U.K health and beauty retailer, Superdrug, combining her passion for product development and beauty.

During her time at Superdrug, she played a key role in launching a brand new beauty brand called B, which boasted over 300 SKUs in over 830 stores. She also worked with a number of cult beauty brands like Liz Earle and Guerlain. Kan’s wealth of experience eventually led her to join Essano Beauty.