Creating a culture of care

We proudly partner with Koha Apparel, a registered charity that seeks to uplift our most marginalised, providing clean, quality clothing to those in need at no cost. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, we spoke with founder Charli Cox about this work and how the organisation is addressing textile waste through their community clothing exchange.

Becoming a B Corp

Since our inception in 2006, Kowtow’s purpose has been to put people and planet first. We see positive impact amplified when we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We work with a Fairtrade certified supply chain and like-minded partners to create discernible change within the fashion industry.

Kowtow Sustainability Strategy

Founded in 2006, Kowtow is committed to creating positive change. We believe in preserving the planet and protecting people in everything we do. Our decision making is centred around circular design, ethical manufacturing and sustainable fibres. This strategy outlines our roadmap to creating incremental change across each of these founding values. Our strategy is structured across the pillars of ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Prosperity’.

Kelmarna: Creating A Food System Kinder To The Planet

Nestled in the heart of Tāmaki Makarau, Kelmarna is an urban farm whose purpose is to rebuild connections between people, food production and the land. 

Sowing The Seeds For A Brighter Future

The benefits of green spaces and access to nature are long documented. As urban populations grow and the sprawl of concrete continues to encroach on the natural world, community gardens and urban farms take on a new importance. With a shared purpose to do better for the planet and our communities, Kowtow seeks to bring attention to and celebrate the Avant Gardeners - the local changemakers behind these vital green spaces.

Urban Farming For a Better Future

At Kowtow, we are inspired by Kaicycle’s small changes that make a big impact. Whether it’s regenerative and organic farming, circularity or composting, we have a shared purpose to do better for the planet. Through our long standing relationship with Kaicycle - and years of using their composting service - we have worked together to divert our waste from landfill to compost.

Community & Urban Garden Directory

The Garden Book Tee is a celebration of Avant Gardeners - the local changemakers behind our community gardens and urban farms. Nestled within our cities, these spaces become a source of education and nourishment, green patches for community amongst the urban landscape.

Avant Gardener

Inspired by nature in full bloom, this collection celebrates the Avant Gardeners. We believe that collectively, small actions have a big impact. Positive change can begin at home, and in our gardens. By nurturing our natural environment we can bring life to the spaces we inhabit, and encourage nature to thrive - this becomes an act of protest in a world that needs protecting.

The Studio Series: 03. Design, Colour & Print

The colours are the beginning of a collection. Every colour is made from scratch - determined by Kowtow’s design team who blend and alter every colour to create the perfect shade. Kowtow’s Creative Director Marilou draws inspiration from everyday objects. The colours of a tea towel or the cover of a book can catch her eye and make their way into the collection.

The Studio Series: 02. Weaves & Textiles

This collection’s creative direction takes inspiration from the women of Bauhaus. The German art school that produced some of its generations finest artists and specialised in both fine arts and crafts. Bringing this time-honoured practice into the modern day, our collection - Material Matters - is selected and designed by hand and guided by touch: the weight, weave, and texture of cotton into myriad fabrics.

The Studio Series: 01. Cotton

In The Studio Series, our Creative Director Marilou shares with us her process in creating a collection entirely from cotton, plus the creative direction of every choice: from conception to design. “As designers we are responsible for what we put out into the world” which is why Material Matters leaves as light a footprint as possible.

Lauren Brincat x Kowtow

We are excited to partner with Australian artist Lauren Brincat, for her Vivid LIVE performance at Sydney Opera House. Sharing a love of colour, textile and shape, Kowtow dressed the artist and her collaborators in a Bauhaus inspired uniform. Tutti Presto fff’ responds to the site of the Opera House, translating the visual and historical gestures of the building into cloth.

Enlightened By Nature

Our commitment to nature is evergreen. We use only 100% Fairtrade organic cotton, and with each new collection we move closer to our goal of 0% plastic. With a goal to leave the world better than we found it, that we share with our community, we’re looking to inspirational women to see how they are inspired by their natural environment and how they keep close to it, every day.

Innovate & Resist: Māori Art & Activism

There is a kōrero that has become synonymous with Māori art, it is a kōrero that reflects both where Māori art originated and where it is going. It is that Māori makers have a tradition of innovation, acknowledging that Māori have always taken up new technologies as they arrived in Aotearoa or have been developed here.

Left of the middle: How a decentralised museum model can foster climate action

For a number of years, museums and galleries have been grappling with their role and responsibility towards climate change. As institutions traditionally concerned with preserving and celebrating narratives of colonialism, globalisation, capitalism and modernity, they are intimately bound with the root causes of impending ecological collapse. Coupled with high-carbon, high-waste activities such as touring exhibitions and affiliated packaging, trends in international vernissage attendance, collecting, and preservation (often stolen objects at the heart of the ‘decolonising museums’ debate), the sector’s impact is vast.

Thumbs Up to a unified nationwide waste and recycling strategy

Thumbs Up New Zealand (Tino Pai Aotearoa) is an exciting movement working to progress the creation of a unified nationwide waste and recycling strategy so that Aotearoa can be empowered to transition out of our waste crisis. We believe that together, we can make for positive change to this smelly situation.