Burnout for Aotearoa fashion designers has become commonplace in the creative cycle. A lack of established platforms for showcasing work, the absence of fashion-specific funding and the pressure to sideline experimentation in place of commercially saleable products in a small market all contribute to the burnout so many creatives face.
Nicola Luey is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based streetwear designer working within this limiting context, with her brand ANTI. Nicola’s first collection in nine years, titled Free Treasures, is a product of navigating these conditions and moving through her own creative burnout (she recently launched a new online store; you can buy one-off pieces from the range here).
A self-reflective collection born out of necessity and longing, Free Treasures is a response to working in an unforgiving space. These themes are presented through Nicola’s signature DIY fabric design, experimental cut-outs and fine-tuned styling to create alter-ego characters that live outside of the structures she felt confined by. Her playful return to the fashion and music subcultures that formed her design aesthetic became an ode to a period in Nicola’s life where creativity felt limitless.
Her reflections on making Free Treasures speak to the necessity of community support for early-career creatives. Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa, a community-led alternative to the industry-dominated New Zealand Fashion Week, and spaces like these give permission for designers to experiment, connect and ‘take up space’ away from the pressures of commercialisation. – Felicia Tjandra
Zoe Walker Ahwa: You have such a unique sensibility, through your designs, photography and aesthetic. How would you describe that? What inspires your work?
Nicola Luey: The things that I make are always rooted in my diaspora identity and the sense of tension that has accompanied that. I came across this quote by Robert Walser in a book that I'm currently reading that speaks to this feeling: “the novel I am writing is always the same one, and it might be described as a variously sliced up or torn-apart book of myself.”
I often reference the fashion and music subcultures that were formative for me; a lens of personal nostalgia that I use to articulate my journey of learning and reconciling.
ZWA: Your work is ‘streetwear’. What do you love about streetwear specifically?
NL: Streetwear was important to me growing up because it offered a place in fashion that wasn’t ultra feminine and was also intertwined with the pop culture, music and art that I loved.
ZWA: What role does humour play in your designs? And what role do you think humour has in fashion in general?
NL: I don’t set out with humour in mind when I'm designing but I can understand how my pop culture references and use of characters can be interpreted that way. I also think that sometimes directness can be humorous even if it’s not intentional.
You've talked about industry-fueled burnout, which is absolutely a thing – at all levels! I blame the endless need for newness in fashion, in both garments and #content/marketing, and so many other personal reasons. Can you talk a little bit more about your thoughts on burnout, and some of the reasons that it’s so front of mind for so many creatives right now?
NL: In my personal experience creative burnout happened when I was faced with the reality of creative life here in Aotearoa. I naively thought that I was going to be able to find a way to make things to sustain myself, but the reality for most creatives is having a full-time job to be able to fund their creative endeavors. The industry gatekeeping, lack of support, funding, studio spaces, mentorship and community were things that weighed on me, not to mention the personal cost of having to operate and embody your brand.
I think that the necessity to be an expert in everything with a fashion brand in order to survive is something that swallowed my joy in fashion for a long time.
ZWA: How did you cope with, or move through, your own creative burnout?
NL: I came to a point where I realised that the only way through my creative burnout was to choose whether I wanted to change my relationship with my fashion work, or to move away from my fashion work as a whole.
It was an important moment for me because it made me realise that deep down, I still had a longing to make clothes amidst the difficulty of doing so. It was a moment where I had to take stock of how deeply I had been dispirited by toxic workplaces in fashion, the relentless expectations of grind culture and the loneliness I'd accumulated from not having a fashion community to make alongside. I always wonder if anyone else finds it this hard to make things.
ZWA: You were part of Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa alongside other emerging creatives. Why is an event like that so important for you to be part of? You’ve mentioned before that it felt like the arrival of a fashion community you always wanted.
NL: Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa is an example of a creative community coming together to make the future that they want they want to see. Āhua is set apart because it is run not for profit, but for the value and love of the local creative community – uplifting each other and coming up all together.
Āhua is genuinely the first platform I have come across that is truly accessible and aligned with my values. It feels empowering and inspiring to be a part of, even as a spectator. When you go to the shows you can see how desperately a community like this was needed in Aotearoa fashion, so many people are activated and included that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to be. It’s truly one of the most exciting things happening at the moment and I can’t wait to see the long-lasting ripples Āhua has.
ZWA: Your show was so fun and relevant, taking place in a mini mart on Karangahape Road. What was the thinking behind that as a location, and presentation for your clothes?
NL: The incredible producers and team behind Āhua engaged local businesses to activate spaces along Karangahape Road that aren’t usually used as an event space, especially in a fashion context.
The ‘Out of Service’ show was in the ‘In and Out Supermarket’ at the corner of Queen Street and Karangahape, and provided a really memorable backdrop which was themed around rejection of ‘the corporate machine’.
ZWA: Can you talk through the collection and pieces you showed – what was the inspiration behind the range? What were some of the standout pieces, and techniques? And why did you call it Free Treasures?
NL: The collection name is the title of a song by Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) and speaks to a love that is ‘understanding, patience and pleasure, time and attention, the eleventh dimension, free treasure’.
My hope is that I'll be able to get to a place with my creative work that embodies this love, and feels as freeing, limitless and fun as it felt for me when I first discovered fashion.
I set out to make this collection not through inspiration but from necessity with my personal reckoning with being a maker becoming my impetus. The process became a type of metaphorical homecoming; a rediscovery of my original inspirations with a renewed vision for streetwear. Free Treasures became an ode to finding renewed joy in making and sharing art amidst a hostile environment for creatives.
I wanted to embrace negative space cut outs in garments, airbrushing to create my own fabrics and upcycling secondhand knitwear. I created a cat girl motif; a type of mascot and a homage to brands like Paul Frank and Emily the Strange which I grew up around.
You’ll see a cut away heart, and crossbones; a window of vulnerability and humanness. In pastel pink bubble writing ‘HERE NOW’ tying the garment together, a tartan green ‘HOPE’. An enlarged soft safety pin, black tulle, knit aviator hats, and legwarmers adorned with satin bows; a visceral embodied friendship between riot grrrls, pop punk, gothic lolitas and skaters – a creation of characters that live outside of the structures that I often feel confined by.
ZWA: It’s also your first collection in nine years – why did you choose to take that break, and why did you choose to ‘come back’ now?
NL: Unfortunately the time that I took away from fashion wasn’t intentional, but in retrospect was necessary for me in order to be able to come back to fashion with the type of groundedness that I have now.
I think that a collection like Free Treasures wouldn’t have been possible for me without those years, as the time afforded me the space to grow in my understanding of what I really want from my art. It gave me the opportunity to shift my relationship with paid and unpaid work as well as my personal life; a slow shedding of a grind culture mindset that had embedded itself in my life.
ZWA: You also do Fresh Fruits zine which I really want to get our hands on! Tell me a little about that – it’s clearly inspired by the iconic FRUiTS.
NL: FRUiTS magazine by Shoichi Aoki is probably the most pivotal piece of media in my fashion journey. It unlocked such a sense of freedom outside of the style sensibilities of the Western media that I grew up around, and it remains one of my biggest inspirations to date. I have been making zines now for 10 years, and when I decided to start making my version called Fresh Fruits in 2022 it was the first time that I had picked up a camera so it was well outside of my comfort zone!
But in the same way that Free Treasures came about, Fresh Fruits felt like a necessity for me at a time when I needed to stretch outside of my social bubble, and was looking to connect with the people in Tāmaki that I thought were genuine style makers. By the third issue, I've now really honed in on platforming subculture and alternative style which I’m currently working on to be released at Auckland Zinefest this year in July!
ZWA: How would you describe the style of Tāmaki Makaurau youth culture at the moment?
NL: I think that youth culture fashion is such a good reflection of how people are responding to culture at large. I’m very inspired by the style of really expressive pockets of Tāmaki Makaurau’s communities like those who attend the Glitch events, Avant House of Dawn and Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa, especially in a place like Tāmaki Makaurau where, in my opinion, it is not celebrated to express yourself through alternative fashion.
ZWA: Anything else you’d like to add?
NL: Community is key, both in the sense of supporting it and cultivating it.
Allow yourself to make bad art and to still celebrate it.
Have intentional time to be anti-productive.
Engage in art outside of your sphere.
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