It’s been 20 years since award-winning fashion designer Kiri Nathan married the love of her life, Jason, and 15 years since she launched her self-titled label.
As she celebrates the two passions she has poured so much of her heart and time into, Kiri is refreshingly honest. Yes, there is a lot to celebrate, but there have also been many hurdles to tackle and in some ways, she confides, they’re hustling just as hard as ever.
“It feels longer than 15 years for the business and I wouldn’t say we’ve made it – it certainly doesn’t feel like that right now,” shares Kiri, 52.
“It feels like a grind. But there are moments where my heart feels really full and I know something great has happened.”
Success and setbacks
There was the honour and responsibility of being the first Māori designer to open New Zealand Fashion Week in 2023 to great acclaim. But since then, Kiri has been repeatedly disappointed to miss out on funding proposals and a major uniform contract, while her clothing line, like so many Kiwi businesses, experienced its most challenging year in 2024.
By September, she and Jason had no choice but to let their staff go.
“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in business, because they are whānau to us,” she says.
Around Christmas, things were looking up, especially with the opening of a Kiri Nathan store in Britomart.
“The stars aligned and we feel so grateful.”
Long COVID
But Kiri had no idea she was about to be knocked back again, this time with her own health on the line when she contracted strep throat, then Covid and a rare complication, which left her bed-bound in agony with a full body rash for a month.
“I didn’t have the energy to do emails or keep working from bed,” says Kiri, who had to repeatedly advocate for herself as she tried to get diagnosed.
“When you’re in your sixth night of no sleep because your skin is on fire, you start to become Dr Google and the only thing I could find that looked like my symptoms was Covid rash,” recalls Kiri.
She told doctors her theory, but they said only one percent of New Zealanders suffer from COVID rash, so it was highly unlikely.
“I was in hospital for a week while they did multiple tests, ECG, MRI, biopsies, antibiotic infusions every six hours, blood tests every four hours, full body topical steroid treatments and hot blanket wraps three times a day.”
At the end of the week, doctors concluded that it was indeed Covid rash.
Three months on, Kiri still lives with long Covid, often leaving her unexpectedly exhausted. She also has full-body scarring, which will require topical treatment for another year.
“Normally I would just keep pushing to work and get things done, but these lessons keep on coming and it’s a reminder that if we don’t have our hauora [wellbeing], we can’t do anything,” tells Kiri.
Voice of reason
Throughout everything, it’s her whānau and especially her ever-stable and reliable husband who she leans on.
“Jason’s name on my phone is ‘Voice of Reason’ and he really is that,” she smiles.
“He’s the person who will call me on things, if he thinks I’m being unreasonable. But when he knows I’m really hurting, when I’m at my most vulnerable, that’s when he’s at his most protective.”
No matter what’s happening in their business, the guiding mantra the parents of five and grandparents of four always come back to is “Be a good human and raise good humans.”
Celebrating 20 years
With their unwavering dedication to their children, Kiri tells the Weekly that when it came time to celebrate two decades of marriage, she found herself sewing kapa haka uniforms for her daughter’s school all day. But she couldn’t be prouder of her and Jason’s relationship.
“Everyone’s experience is different, but our relationship, our marriage, is the thing I’ve worked at harder and longer than anything else – and the same goes for Jase,” she enthuses.
“It’s one thing to be attracted to someone and fall in love, and another thing to live with each other for 24 years, raising a blended whānau and working together.
“We’ve experienced more life together than not. We’ve had great years and average years, but there’s this absolute foundation of ‘You’re my human and there’s no way I want to do life with anyone else or without you.’”
With her ever-quick wit, Kiri jokes, “And if you were interviewing Jase, he’d say the same thing because I’d make him!”
Laughing, she explains Jason prefers to avoid the limelight at all cost.
“He can’t be anything but real. But he’s very good at expressing how he loves his children and wife.”
