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Mumturns search for Māori baby clothes into a business

Katie Ham

When Georgia Taiapa (Ngāti Porou) found out shewas pregnant last year, she was ‘‘shocked’’ and disappointed by the lack of affordable clothing featuring Māori designs for her soon-to-be-born daughter.

‘‘I would spend hours looking at baby products online. I’d always wanted my children towear traditionalMāori clothing but there justwasn’t anything.

‘‘I realised I’d have to come upwith something myself.’’

Rather than just create clothes for baby Mairangi, however, she decided to turn the resulting designs into a business opportunity.

The 22-year-old already had her own small business, Piwari Boutique.

With help from family she created her own baby products, which she is now selling.

Two of Taiapa’s products have been nominated for Konei’s Aotearoa Top 50 Māori Product award.

Her father, Horace Taiapa, is a traditional Māori carver and designs the patterns she adds to her baby products.

‘‘Itmeans a lot to me that the products Konei have chosen are both something my Dad designed and can be worn by my baby.

‘‘My family is themost important thing in the world to me, so to have them included at every stage of the process is amazing.’’

Her two shortlisted products – the Taikehu Māori Capsule Cover and Taikehu Pēpi Swaddle – are the only Māori design of their kind available in New Zealand at themoment, she said.

‘‘I think it’s really important that pēpi are able to wear clothes that represent them and where they come from.’’

After leaving Wainuiomata High School, it was not her intention to run a business.

She was working as a recruitment officer while she waited for a job as a flight attendant to come up.

Heavily involved in kapa haka, Taiapa would often take sunglasses she had purchased online to marae they visited.

‘‘Everyone kept pinchingmy glasses, so I’d go and buy more and then they’d pinch them again. I suddenly thought that

I should start selling them. People then started asking for other things, and it just grew from there.’’

Eventually it became too much for Taiapa to manage alongside her recruitmentwork, so she took a ‘‘leap’’ and committed full-time to her business.

For Taiapa, having a focus onMāori products makes running her business special.

‘‘For me, it’s all about staying up to date withwhat’s in style but adding that cultural twist to ‘Māori-ify’ everythingwe sell.

‘‘There needs to be that representation of theNew Zealand population in fashion.’’

Voting for the Aotearoa Top 50 is open on konei.nz until May 29. If Taiapamakes the Top 50, she will be invited to Auckland to take part in a display of all the products chosen in honour of Matariki.

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en-nz

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281801402586132

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