Kharl WiRepa

In Vogue fashionista conquering global catwalk, remodelling beauty pageants

Words Jill Nicholas

Pictures supplied/ David Rowe Photography

Video Stephen Parker

It was the great 20th century fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld who said “If you try to be trendy you’ll only blend in with the masses”.

It’s a maxim another Kharl of a different spelling has lived by since the age of six.

That Kharl is Rotorua-born Kharl WiRepa (Te Arawa, Whānau-ā-Apanui, Tainui) who has dedicated himself to being different – to stand out from the masses.

A designer too, he doesn’t do trends. He paddles his own waka on a course that’s distinctively his own. His fashion style is unapologetically “old” Hollywood.

It embraces all the glitz, glamour and sheer elegance of a past era, yet it’s one that continues to conquer the catwalk.

Growing up, he idolised the late Diana, Princess of Wales, for the style and elegance that became her hallmark.   

Now 32, Kharl’s a New Zealand Fashion Week catwalk regular. He will be back there this week. It’s the fifth time he’s featured. His models are proudly products of Rotorua.  He’s also shown his collections at London and Paris fashion weeks and been invited to present runway shows for the Maori King, Kiingi Tuheitia, Pacific Island royalty, Middle Eastern potentates and the Maharaja and Maharani of Rajasthan.

 In 2017 he featured in British Vogue’s September edition. It’s the issue which is regarded as the crème de la crème of fashion bibles. If designers’ gowns don’t make it into September Vogue they haven’t yet made it into the world of international haute couture.  Kharl WiRepa’s gone and done it. That’s our Kharl.

So far he’s the only designer of Maori heritage Vogue has featured.

To bring the achievement closer to home the backdrop for his oh là là classical black gown showcased by Vogue was Pohutu geyser. Nehsha Moynihan was his model. She was the first winner of the Miss Rotorua pageant in its revised form.

Pageant rejuvenated

It was Kharl WiRepa who brought the event back to life in 2017 after an 18-year hiatus. He may not follow trends but by golly he’s a trail blazer – and a fearless one at that. These days Miss Rotorua is a one size fits all affair with emphasis placed  on entrants’ diverse cultural backgrounds.  

Despite his achievements locally and on the world stage, there will inevitably be those naysayers who will dismiss him as an ex-druggie, a benefit fraudster, a poseur.

Sure, he does present as someone decidedly different. That’s because Kharl is who he is, he doesn’t pretend otherwise.

He freely admits to a past where he’s been lost in a drug-induced fug and doesn’t shy away from the fact he’s been convicted of taking money he wasn’t entitled to from the government’s benefit coffers.

So what? He’s adamant that’s all in the past where it belongs. It’s not for In Profile or anyone else to relitigate.

He gives thanks to God, in whom he fervently believes, and his Mormon faith, for steering him away from addictive substances. He quips that his court appearance generated more local headlines than his appearance in British Vogue.

Take a moment here to ponder on another old adage – that one about how the tables have turned. In Kharl’s case they’ve flipped a full 360 degrees.

He’s now contracted by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to deliver courses to women in long-term unemployment. Just imagine the headlines if he let down the ministry, the women and, above all, himself.

Accepting responsibility

Kharl uses his earlier missteps and the way he’s overcome them to encourage and counsel the women he mentors under the umbrella of the Miss Rotorua Foundation. It’s run by a charitable trust he’s answerable to. It’s another backstop to prevent any further fall from grace on his part. 

So, too, is the responsibility of being the lessee of the Pukuatua Street premises the foundation operates from.

 The rent is subsidised by a group of funders, the Rotorua Trust included, which have put their faith in his ability to deliver.

That’s a heck of a lot of responsibility to be carrying on his immaculately tailored shoulders.

The space is not restricted to the foundation’s use. It’s open to the community without charge. Across any given week a raft of cultures use it for dance classes.

Creative arts and social services programmes are held there.

That’s where MSD comes in. The Mana Wahina courses Kharl oversees are run by tutors and are wide ranging. They include confidence building, the art of applying make-up, how to dress elegantly and poi making. As Kharl puts it: “They [attendees] learn that when you feel beautiful you feel confident, that you can do anything. Here they are empowered to be their very best.”   

Judging by the gales of laughter coming from them the women have a whale of a time reaching the goals set for them.

Making most of life’s experiences

 Moving on to the Kharl WiRepa who sits before us.  

Having known him for some considerable time In Profile’s compiler can say the Kharl we meet today is a very different fellow from the one we wrote about six years ago and have followed from the sidelines since.

The major changes we pinpoint are the maturity, sense of purpose and business know-how he’s acquired.

That said, were this a school report it would read "But he does tend to over-commit himself." 

He became so distracted as fashion week approached he was unable to meet In Profile's deadline for a personal photo shoot.

Put to him that he’s mostly a different person and he says: “A lot of people allow hardship to take over their lives.

 “[I say] we must use our experiences, good or bad, to make something that is beneficial. 

“I would not change even slightly the experiences I have had; they have given me compassion for people who come to me for help. “It is quite marvellous how God gives us these experiences to bless others.”

Inspired by parents, tupuna 

He gives thanks, too, to his parents for never preventing him from living outside the mainstream. Throughout the good and not so good times they have been his bedrock.

Their faith in him is implicit. His mother, Maria Wi Repa, has worked for Oranga Tamariki for the past 12 years. His dad, Rod Wi Repa, has carved out his own success story. In the 1980s and 90s he was this country’s national pool and snooker champ. It’s a unique double whammy in the field of tabletop sports.

“My parents are both great people; they are the people I trust the most. They lead by example.

“My mother is a great advisor. She has been a big influence in my work across the charity sector.  My father has encouraged me to be driven by my heart. He has given me that essence of achieving excellence.

“Together they have taught me when you bless someone else’s life you are in the service of God.”

He credits his Maori tupuna for his entrepreneurial bent. They developed theirs trading with early European settlers.  

“They were considered charismatic. That has really driven me in my career to step onto the international stage.”

Creativity woven into DNA

Intermarriage between Maori and Pakeha has, he says, given him the privilege of being a person of mixed heritage. The creative strands that weave through his DNA come from a long line of forebears. 

“I have several uncles, aunts and cousins who have been in the fashion industry. My great-grandmother Mary Wi Repa’s family, the Grundys, founded the London shoemakers Grundy and Sons. They were bespoke shoemakers to Queen Victoria, holding the royal warrant until the business shut in the 1950s.

“Another Grundy was an artist whose painting of Queen Victoria hangs in Buckingham Palace. Mary Grundy, who married Romeo Wi Repa, inherited his talent.”

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography – Te Ara confirms her landscapes are collectors’ items. 

Movie director Taika Waititi is a close relative.

School bags first fashion statement

Kharl’s first foray into fashion was in his early primary school days. He wasn’t content to carry his lunch in any bog-standard production line bag. His had to have a designer label. His whanau indulged his whim.

Young as he was, he was never going to be a conformist.

“I have always had a relationship with fashion. Even then I knew what we wear is an expression of your personality.”

At secondary school he hung out with “the mean girls”.

“Yes, I was bullied; however, I was popular with my peers too because I always had style.

“I have a staunch personality. Anyone who confronted me was going to get a smack in the face - and did.”

By his mid-teens his aim was to become an entertainer but work in a retail fashion store trumped that.

He scored a job in the Rotorua branch of the Australia-based Supré chain. At 18, he transferred to Sydney where he was dressing the store’s windows across the city.

That’s where drugs got the better of him.

 His parents intervened, admitting him into rehab. “It was hard, very hard, but I have super strong willpower.”

 Six months later he was clean and home. He enrolled in Waiariki Polytech’s school of fashion.

 Miromoda medal winner

His graduation in 2014 was stellar. He was named the winner of the Maori Fashion Apparel Board’s Miromoda medal for indigenous design.

As Kharl has previously put it, “Without a tiki or hint of flax weaving in sight. I don’t have to make my clothing indigenous to be indigenous. I am not a Maori designer.

I am a designer who is Maori.”

The Mirimoda medal gave him entrée to his first New Zealand Fashion Week. Its founder Dame Pieta Stewart had been a medal judge. 

Over his designing years Kharl has stuck to his resolve not to rely on Maori motifs to fast-forward his career.

The exception came this past January when his Whānau-ā-Apanui relatives commissioned him to design their uniforms for Te Matatini.

“Over three weeks we had to make 106 items of clothing for a group of 40 and 16 reserves.

“They were all tailored, boned, lined, all the seams had to match. They had to be perfect, not one thing out of place because my name was on the line.”

Te Whānau-ā-Apanui were Te Matatini 2023’s supreme winners.

Presenting Te Arawa world view 

To Kharl beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. 

With this year’s Miss Rotorua pageant well underway Kharl brings his established  touch of the Pygmalion to it, transforming  generally unsophiticated  contestants into confident, elegant women without losing touch with their inherent inner selves.  

 “The pageant has a unique approach to beauty. It’s the Te Arawa world view.  We don’t have women who are destined to be supermodels. We don’t accept the American view of what beauty is. Here we see it through a unique lens of shapes and sizes, different socio-economic backgrounds.”

In Profile was launched with an introduction to Atutahi Potaka-Dewes, 2021’s Miss Rotorua.  She’s the first to acknowledge she’s not the traditional cookie cutter image of a beauty queen. Her clothes are super-sized.

Atutahi was not the first Miss Rotorua of the Kharl Wi Repa era to buck other pageants’ criteria for contestants to be thin, wholesome girls.

 His kaupapa is diversity.  One grand title winner had spent time in prison for drug offending, nor are all winners of Maori lineage. Miss Rotorua 2021 Koji So’s bloodline is Indonesian Chinese. 

This year the disability sector has a flag bearer in Tia Nicholson. She has Down syndrome, and ADHD, topped off with a touch of Asperger’s.

Kharl took her under his wing when she “stumbled’ into his church.

Brimming with confidence, Tia tells us she’d had a job in kiwifruit but the pageant held more appeal.

“My passion is make-up. I want to dress like a lady, make friends and have a good time.”

Nor is age a barrier to pageant participation. This year’s oldest entrant Tiana Hodge is 77. Last year one of the most confident women in town, former district councillor Merepeka Raukawa Tait, entered and was crowned Miss Te Arawa. Now a candidate for Te Pati Maori in this year’s general election, she enthuses that she learnt a great deal about herself during the 12 weeks preceding finals night. The previous year she’d been a judge.

Such is the variety of Miss Rotorua the 21st century way.

For the past two years the lead-up to the pageant and what goes on behind the scenes was filmed in a no-holds-barred reality show.  It screened on Maori TV under the banner of Gowns and Geysers.

 In the recently screened series the crew followed Kharl to Paris and London. 

Paris, London favourites but home’s forever

He extols Paris as his favourite place on the planet. “I have now got a lot of great relationships across the Parisian fashion industry.” 

To him it’s where the best practitioners of the art of high-end fashion are found.

“They are tucked away in smaller ateliers [designer studios] in back streets and alleyways. They are the essence of what French fashion culture is all about. A lot of the higher end fashion houses are now driven by consumerism.”

He’s equally enthusiastic about London fashion, but from a different perspective.

“I think any New Zealander will feel a connection to our colonial past in London. As a fashion mecca, France has a more demure style while London is a multicultural melting pot. Its fashion ideas are more open minded, more diverse,”

Is there, then, the likelihood Kharl WiRepa, Rotorua fashionista par excellence, will forgo his roots and make Europe his home? 

“I have always wanted to live in Europe but I would never leave my tribe here in Te Arawa.  It is very important I remain here doing the work I do. My place across te iwi is much needed. It would be selfish to leave when I have so much more to do, to achieve.”