Tuhirangi Blair is turning unwanted material into top-end fashion that is swiftly gaining popularity across the globe. His clothing line 'Lucky Dip' offers unique shirts that are 'one of one' designs. His vintage-styled clothing has been showcased around the world and is all produced from the comfort of his own bedroom.
Tuhirangi Blair is the designer behind the 'Lucky Dip' clothing line.
"I go around to op shops to try and find some deadstock fabrics, anything that people aren't using and make a shirt out of it and sell it."
What others would normally consider rubbish is true treasure to this designer and the prices fetched for the garments he creates are a testament to that.
"Internationally, the shirts are six to seven hundred [dollars] and it's at that price point because of a combination of the amount of work put into it, the exclusivity of it all. For a premium product, you have to pay a premium price."
For each shirt, from the idea stage to the final product, it takes Blair seven hours to slowly work on stitching the fabric together before it is ready to sell.
"Everyone likes to understand the time and effort put into their garments, which I feel elevates it to a standard where it automatically becomes their favourite shirt."
His clothing has been a success overseas.
"I took a bag of shirts over and went over to New York and just hit the streets, and was just walking around hitting up people, and then luckily through a friend of mine they put me in contact with a showroom and I went and met up with them. Did a presentation of my work and showed them some shirts and they were really excited about it. And now we've shown in Paris Fashion Week and New York twice."
Blair's main ambition is to carry on creating vintage clothing while he climbs the fashion ladder and to hopefully be a well-known clothing brand within the fashion world.
Regional | Māori