Rebecca Taylor Wraps up for NY’s Cold
Growing up along the beaches of New Zealand, designer Rebecca Taylor didn’t need a closet full of coats, she tells the Chicago Tribune. But when she moved to New York to build her brand…
Blog Archives
Fat Freddy’s Drop Go Techno on New Album
“Cult” New Zealand neo-dub outfit Fat Freddy’s Drop have released their fourth studio album, Bays, and according to News.com.au reviewer Cyclone Wehner, it is “more of an underground Berlin than Detroit vibe.” The septet, who…
Zoë Bell on Fighting Her Way Through Hollywood
“To actually do an action film without Zoë Bell is foolhardy,” director Quentin Tarantino says, but according to Denver news site Westword, based on the current slate on the Waiheke Island-born stunt double turned actor’s…
Brendon Hartley Endures for Porsche in Bahrain
New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley, 25, (pictured far left) has won the FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain alongside Porsche teammates, former Formula One driver Australian Mark Webber (right) and German, Timo Bernhard. The trio took…
Stephanie Liu Masks Pollution Beautifully
New Zealand-born designer Stephanie Liu’s Lumoscura smog mask, recently on show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Fashion 4wrd exhibition, is combatting pollution “beautifully”, according to the Observer. Liu created the piece…
Adele Rickerby Keeps Her Romanian Promise
New Zealander Adele Rickerby had to overcome a number of limitations to adopt a Romanian baby in the 1990s. After she semi-retired, due to back surgery, she found the peace and time to sit…
All the World Is a Stage for Rawiri Paratene
If the Globe Theatre’s Globe to Globe project has a natural figurehead, it is Rawiri Paratene, whose Troilus and Cressida in Maori opened the tour in April 2014, Intelligent Life journalist Jasper Rees writes….
Henry Hargreaves Lets the Air out of the Chip Bag
New Zealand-born artist Henry Hargreaves was so frustrated with the problem of empty space in a packet of chips that he decided to size up some of the worst offenders, calculating the difference between…
Ron Butler Gets Behind New Emergency Vehicle
The Cobra Litter is the brainchild of New Zealand-born racecar designer Ron Butler, who has spent countless hours working on the Ford Shelby Cobra, and retired Santa Barbara County firefighter Michael Schlags. “With Schlags’ real-world…
Dean O’Gorman Gets Kirk Douglas’ Seal of Approval
When Aucklander Dean O’Gorman, 38, was cast in the plum role of Kirk Douglas in Trumbo, the new biopic about blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, he decided to ask the legendary actor if he wouldn’t…
New Zealand Is the Ultimate Nature Adventure
The main experience you are left awestruck with after a trip to New Zealand, according to the Huffington Post, is “the nature – the overwhelming force of the landscapes.” “New Zealand is one of the…
Hotel Maven Sean Macpherson Always Ready to Expand
“There’s nowhere in Manhattan I wouldn’t open a hotel,” New Zealand-born California-raised hotelier Sean MacPherson tells the New York Post. In the past two years, MacPherson has seen two consecutive hotel openings: the 2014…
Chef Amber Rose Shares Celebrity Culinary Secrets
A dozen years ago, British actors Jude Law and Sadie Frost hired self-taught New Zealand-born chef Amber Rose to feed their brood in London, and her career has climbed from there. Rose is now…
Dubai-Based Entrepreneur Rick McIntyre Looks Ahead
Founder of Dubai’s Mac Pack Removals Rick McIntyre, believes hard work, great service and a hands-on approach gives a customer service that people are happy to recommend. With no advertising and plenty of 80-hour…
Hayden Tee Menaces as Javert in Les Mis
New Zealand-born, NIDA-trained actor Hayden Tee has received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Javert in the world’s longest running musical, Les Misérables, which has made its long-awaited return to Brisbane. “Audiences’ reactions …
Thomas Pavitte Revives the Art of Dot-to-Dot
New Zealand-born designer Thomas Pavitte is taking a minimalist approach to the current craze for adult colouring books, requiring his readers to draw the images themselves and turning dot-to-dot drawing into an art form. Pavitte…
Finola Dwyer Tells Her Mother’s Story in Brooklyn
New Zealand-born, London-based producer Finola Dwyer has “impeccable taste,” according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Her latest collaboration with author Nick Hornby is Brooklyn, the film version of Colm Toibin’s 2009 novel. Dwyer has made…
Thinking Outside the Box with Henry Hargreaves
A native New Zealander and current resident of Brooklyn, New York, Henry Hargreaves is well-known for his food-focused visual projects, like a series recreating the last meals of death row inmates. Hargreaves offers up…
Lydia Ko on TIME’s Most Influential Teen List
Auckland professional golfer Lydia Ko, 18, has once again made TIME’s annual “30 Most Influential Teens” list. At the age of 17, this New Zealander became the youngest golfer to be ranked number one in…
Replacing the Union Jack Flag, but With What?
The idea of replacing New Zealand’s flag, a blue banner with Britain’s Union Jack in the upper left quadrant and the four stars of the Southern Cross in red on the right, has percolated…
Berlin’s Sausage Man Simon Ellery Never Sleeps
Sausages are the quintessential German food, and that’s why New Zealander Simon Ellery, known as the Sausage Man Who Never Sleeps, moved to Berlin in 2010. Over the past five years, he has studied…
Kim Chambers, the World’s Most Badass Swimmer
The world’s best open water swimmer, New Zealand-born Kim Chambers, 38, who recently swam from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco, tells Outside Magazine that fear makes you grow, a little fat is okay,…
Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Giselle a Triumph
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s recent production of Giselle at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre was “gorgeous, and unashamedly traditional”, the Scotsman’s Kelly Apter writes in a review of the performance. “In an era when everything…
Lydia Ko Reclaims No. 1 Title in Taiwan
New Zealander Lydia Ko, 18, has won the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship and has regained the No. 1 spot in the world rankings, replacing American Nancy Lopez as the youngest player to win 10 events…
Dance Wunderkind Parris Goebel Gaining Traction
The New Yorker’s review of Justin Bieber’s latest “stellar” video, “Sorry” – perhaps “an acceptable cap to his year of penitence” – declares that, “it is impossible not to feel as if you would…
Farmer Plays Lorde’s Royals till the Cows Come Home
An American farmer and YouTube sensation plays a mesmerising video version of Lorde’s 2013 smash hit single “Royals” on his trombone whilst sitting in a deckchair overlooking a vast pasture. Soon, a herd of…
Peter Cooper’s Unprecedented Act of Philanthropy
New Zealand-born Peter Cooper, who developed Auckland’s Britomart site, has donated NZ$74 million to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. to expand an athletic leadership programme and upgrade a sports field, in what’s been called…
How Jennifer Flay Revived the Dull Paris Art Scene
New Zealander Jennifer Flay’s neck was broken and she was being kept alive by machines after the car crash that nearly killed her. Most people who come back from these make-or-break moments in life…
Fis Mixes an Eclectic Set for FACT Mag
New Zealand producer Olly Peryman aka Fis features in UK-based online music blog FACT Magazine’s regular “Mixes” category with one of the year’s weirdest picks, according to the site. “With his early releases on Samurai and…
Lorde’s Little Sister India Has Dreams of Her Own
In the past couple of years, India Yelich-O’Connor went to both her high school ball in Devonport and the 2014 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles – not the average itinerary for a 16-year-old, but…
Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman Loves NZ for Quiet
Adopted New Zealander, lead singer of post-punk English band Killing Joke, Jaz Coleman tells Billboard about his average day, which involves catching fish. Coleman has a home on a secret island in the Hauraki Gulf,…
New Zealanders Leading the Way in London Cafés
New Zealand-owned cafés, Ozone Coffee Roasters and Nude Espresso, are included in a Malay Mail Online feature about London’s “underground” coffee spots. “Opened in 2012, Ozone Coffee Roasters London was originally founded by Kiwis…
Justin Bieber calls upon Parris Goebel
Popstar Justin Bieber’s latest dance music video “Sorry” features some “totally kickass dancers” led by New Zealand choreographer Parris Goebel. “Sure, they aren’t a former teen heartthrob turned bona fide artist that even grown-ass adults…
Jennifer Flay Banks on the Seine for Art Fair
New Zealand-born Parisian Jennifer Flay, general director since 2010 of the venerable event known as Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC), said she thought “long and hard” about how to top the fair’s recent successes…
Dean Barker and the Sharing of a Rivalry
As Oracle Team USA polished off one of the greatest comebacks in any sport in the last America’s Cup, even eye contact became difficult for Jimmy Spithill, Oracle’s skipper, and Dean Barker, his counterpart…
Martin Jetpacks Cleared for Takeoff
The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand has approved Martin Aircraft’s latest model jetpack, the Prototype 12, for manned flight, Business Insider reports. Martin Jetpacks, the world’s first commercial jetpacks with their distinctive mid-mounted fan…
Obviously Deathgasm Is a Family Film
“Making his feature directing debut after several years on the FX teams of such films as The Avengers and The Hobbit, New Zealander Jason Lei Howden delivers a pic that will play very well…
Jane Campion One of Cinema’s Most Powerful Women
“From Golden Age trailblazers to modern-day ass-kickers,” the Telegraph introduces its readers to Hollywood’s 34 “most influential, inventive and important women,” including our very own Jane Campion. A director, writer and producer, Campion is best…
Wrestling with Wellington’s Wild Weather
The wind speed in this breeziest of cities Wellington once hit 247kmph at Hawkins Hill in 1962, but it’s not as bad as it sounds – 62 turbines generate the city’s electricity, while air…
Organist Thomas Gaynor Wins Huge Prize
Wellington’s Thomas Gaynor, 24, who is currently studying in the United States, has won the prestigious 3rd Bach Liszt Organ competition, held in Weimar, Germany. The Wellington College graduate won the organ prize over 18…
Splatstick Done the Ash Vs. Evil Dead Way
Roger Murray, on the phone to the Los Angeles Times from the Auckland set of Ash vs. Evil Dead, has one simple way to describe his job as the show’s prosthetics designer and props…
Natalie Lin Does Away with the Conductor
New Zealand violinist Natalie Lin, 26, has created a 16-piece string ensemble called Kinetic, an unconducted chamber orchestra which recently made its debut at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston. “I lead the ensemble with…
Marlon Williams Smoulders in TV Debut
With 24-year-old New Zealand singer Marlon Williams making his Australian television debut – in ABC’s seductive new miniseries, The Beautiful Lie – both his vocal ability and screen charisma should convince viewers of this…
Jennifer Flay Awarded France’s Legion of Honour
Jennifer Flay, who has been director of Paris’s premiere art fair Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) since 2003, has been awarded the Legion of Honour. On receiving France’s highest decoration, the Auckland-born Flay, 56, gave…
Luis Esteves Making His Mark as a Johnny in US
Auckland-born Luis Esteves is making a name for himself playing soccer as a senior midfielder for St. John’s University in New York. While he looks towards the future, it’s impossible to overlook his incredible…
Kapa Haka Tale a Piece of NZ for Oxford
As part of Oxford’s Family Dance Week there is a one-off opportunity to see the haka live in a show performed by Corey Baker’s dance company, as part of a stunning new show called…
Celebrating Our Ties to Korea
“The New Zealand Embassy has kicked off a month-long festival in October to celebrate growing commercial and cultural links with Korea, expected to expand further after the free trade agreement likely comes into force…
Callum Millward Ups the Ironman Ante
One year ago, New Zealand-born Callum Millward was showing off cupcakes and interviewing triathletes preparing for the Ironman World Championships, Hawaiian news site Big Island Now reports. This month, he got his first taste…
Lili Sumner Joins Saint Laurent Model Girl Gang
Originally from Auckland, 21-year-old model Lili Sumner, who took to the catwalk at Paris Fashion Week this month, is one of the “Saint Laurent model girl gang”, according to Vogue. “The Saint Laurent model crew…
Silver Fern Stars Aim to Motivate in Singapore
Two of the most storied names in netball, New Zealand’s Irene van Dyk, who recently retired from international netball, and current captain Casey Kopua, will travel to Singapore in November on a week-long visit…
Lorde One of Stardom’s Vengeful
Lorde joins the ranks of pop singers joyfully and brutally sidestepping tropes about victimhood in the music video for Disclosure’s “Magnets” which ends with the featured New Zealander tying a guy to a chair,…
Helen Clark Comments on 70 Years of the UN
As the UN marks the 70th anniversary of its founding this autumn, those imperfections – and how the UN addresses them – have come to the fore as the organisation struggles to define its…
New Zealand Negotiates Itself into the Future
Why can New Zealand negotiate vast trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest regional trade accord in history, while Britian continues to argue over markets of the past, the Telegraph’s Harriet Maltby…
With a Little Help from Sam Neill’s Friends
Hollywood star Sam Neill may originally hail from Northern Ireland, but he has just confessed to having a little difficulty mastering an Ulster accent for television drama series Peaky Blinders – despite help from…
Jane Campion Casts Gaze over Female-Directed Films
Jane Campion contributes to a Sight & Sound magazine special issue, which aims “to write women back into film history by championing 100 female-directed hidden gems that have been forgotten or unfairly overlooked.” “Just because…
Pavlova Makes for an Odd Culinary History
Some of the sweet things you’ve been eating all your life have a very interesting, contentious history, women’s interest site Bustle reports, listing New Zealand’s very own pavlova in its “Strange History of Five…
