Jerome Taylor said people in Australia were more open to working with one another. File picture. Photo: 123rf
A successful Kiwi clothing designer has packed up to do business in Australia instead.
Jerome Taylor launched the high-end fashion brand nearly 10 years ago and it has been featured in Vogue Magazine and had showings at Fashion Weeks overseas and at home.
He even had the backing of a Prime Minister's Scholarship to tour the textile industry in India - but his brand 'Not For You' is now called "Not Here", as he's packed up to base himself across the Tasman.
Taylor told Checkpoint his decision was based on the number of opportunities in Australia.
"I've spent 34 years in New Zealand, and I think I had achieved quite a lot in that time frame, but I just feel like the last few years it's just been a wee bit flat.
"From what I was doing on social media it got a lot of attention overseas and I just thought I think I might have to start making the move."
He said other creators were facing similar challenges, whether they were making jewellery, music, art or fashion.
"Everyone is feeling affected right now, I try my best through social media to [post] any tips and tricks that I come across or even talking about things like analytics, my customers don't really care about that but the other creative people who follow me are just thinking 'yeah this was pretty helpful'."
He said he used social media to have conversations with other people in the industry about how their businesses were faring.
"When you're hearing about people's shops shutting down and it's falling a bit flat, they're thinking that it's all them, they're doing something wrong.
"When I'm looking at what they're doing, it's actually the community, either one: people are a bit scared on spending the money or two: there's even corporations or businesses that aren't willing to back them so much nowadays."
Taylor has lived in Wellington his whole life and he said the city had changed from what it used to be.
"I've always thought it was this upbeat community, where you can go out there have fun and whatever you wanted to do, you could do. You could find people around you that were just like 'yeah brilliant idea', photographers, videographers, all sorts."
Any type of creative person could make it in Wellington, and it used to be the best place for the creative industry in New Zealand, he said.
"Now, I feel you walk around Wellington, and it just seems so grey, so dull, it's not that fun vibrant place of what it used to be, I don't even know how they try and market Wellington nowadays."
In Australia, more people were open to working with one another, he said.
"I do think that New Zealand does have that tall poppy thing still going to this day, even though we're all so well aware of it. I feel like people are trying to get better but it's almost like everyone wants to win and everyone wants to succeed in what they're doing.
"They're quick to either one, pull somebody else down or two, they don't want to share maybe those little tips and tricks they might know of."
Kiwis need to be more open to collaboration and mentorship, he said.
"There are many people who are also starting up their own businesses, they're also willing to try something different with their social media, they're wanting to be more creative.
"Even bigger businesses are willing to actually invest a bit more time, effort and money into a creative person where just in New Zealand I haven't seen that.
"The creative industry in New Zealand is taken advantage of," he said.
"You've got New Zealand Fashion Week and that does do a great job of highlighting different designers but really it costs a s... load of money to be able to get in and then even there, there's a tiered system.
"Fashion Week tends to be about who's in the first two rows, who are the people that are turning up, who's walking into the shows."
He said New Zealand Fashion Week was not there to celebrate local designers nor give them the opportunity to sell their own products.
"They're going to those shows believing I'm paying X amount of money so I can get promotion so people will see me, so I can be validated, and my business can grow.
"But it's not, you're actually really there to pay for this whole kind of facade to go on and then one week later they don't want to know you."
At fashion shows overseas, the designers were better supported, he said.
"I've done fashion shows overseas, I've done Vancouver Fashion Week, China Fashion Week. They are there for the designer 110 percent.
"They will have moments where they actually will have breaks in the show, and they will make you go and see those important people that they have come to the show, those the people in those first two rows."
He said at overseas fashion shows designers could meet manufacturers and people that could move their business to the next level.
"They also give you opportunities to actually sell your product there. If you've got 700 people coming to a show, then they allow you the opportunity to even have product there.
"People not only get to see it and get hyped and excited, but they [also] leave with something, that's where you're actually starting to get a little bit of business happening and they immediately can start to get some return on what they actually just spend money on."
NZFW responds to criticisms
In a statement, Liam Taylor, director of the board for NZFW 2025 said:
"New Zealand Fashion Week 2025 will be a very different event to what has existed in the past, with a more versatile and inclusive format, allowing designers and brands to take part in the event in a way that best suits their needs.
"This year's event is being curated by a brand new Board that is aiming to reinvent the event to cater to what the industry needs. These changes include making the event have more of a nationwide footprint, as well as having a heightened focus on fashion fans and customers, and not exclusively catering to fashion media and wholesale buyers.
"A significant decision we've taken in 2025 is to remove the designer fee component of NZFW, meaning the 'show fee' element of a designer's fashion week budget (traditionally in excess of NZD$10,000) has been eliminated. This is a key decision in making the event more accessible and inclusive.
"The changes we are implementing for 2025 have reignited interest from iconic New Zealand designers such as Karen Walker who have signed up to NZFW 2025."
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