Transcript
For the first time, 52 Commonwealth countries have come together to showcase a wealth of design and craft.
Twenty-six designers were to work with 26 artisans to create an item that will mark the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit that will be held at London in April.
But the dress itself has been exhibited this week and Karen Walker says she's excited about the collaboration.
"I've always loved the look of tivaivai. I've always loved the graphics, the scale, the colours, the detail of the stitching and I've always been very drawn to how tivaivai look and also what they stand for and their history and I've never had the opportunity to work with tivaivai."
It took over one thousand hours for the Karen Walker and Kuki 'Airani Creative Moms tivaivai dress to be formed.
One of the Moms, Tukua Turia, says it was a team effort by six women who all found the experience empowering.
"I know the tivaivai is not as hard as what the dress we did. It was so hard, but the māmās were so good. One has to thread the needle for us and also we just carry on and the other one has to do the cuppa tea for us. That's how it works, but one māmā, she's 91 this year she was really awesome. We didn't ask, she wanted to help."
Ms Walker says the design process was not straight forward and had a few hiccups along the way.
According to her, the initial look of the design was not what they envisaged, so she approached the Mums to use their floral graphics instead.
The next hiccup involved tweaking a traditional practice when making tivaivai.
"It had going to be the a burgundy flannel dress with dusty pink flowers appliqué on top, that was the plan and then when Tukua did her first set of tests on the fabric, just to see what the would stitches looked like and how the fabric related to the stitches, she realised that it was just going to look better with just the stitching, not doing traditional appliqué."
The Cook Islands Development Agency of New Zealand is one of the groups supporting the project.
Chief Executive Rouruina Brown says she was emotional seeing the dress as she saw the rare opportunity for her culture to be showcased on an international stage.
"Every element of the stitching, when you see the māmās next to the garment, you just know that every stitch is stitched with love and for somebody who is probably a bit more Kiwi Kūki 'Airani than the other way round, when we see traditions of yesterday and the contemporary of today and tomorrow on an international stage, it's just gorgeous."
The fashion piece is a formal strapless gown, made out of pink Italian wool flannel and covered in embroidered flowers, nine of the ten flowers from the māmās graphic collection.
