Dan Ahwa, I Like Your Style
What is “I like your style”? It’s the series in which we ask fashion lovers to share some of their favourite outfits and talk us through what inspires and influences the way they dress and shop. Then they nominate someone whose style they admire and so the style chain continues.
This time we had a chat to Dan Ahwa, a pillar of the local fashion media industry. After spending ten years sharpening his eye as the fashion and creative director at Viva, Dan has recently stepped into a new role as one of the creative advisors for New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria. Dan’s personal style is a balanced combination of suave and playful, think tailored jackets and crisp button-ups paired with jeans and unexpected accessories. Below, he shares his stylistic influences, favourite designers and how the local landscape continues to shape his aesthetic.
Who is Dan Ahwa?
I'm first and foremost for my family. A husband and a friend. Secondly, I'm a stylist, a journalist and a creative director. I was the fashion and creative director for Viva, The New Zealand Herald for 10 years before segueing into creative board advisor for New Zealand Fashion Week Kahuria, a freelance writer and stylist, and as contributing editor for Ensemble magazine. More recently, I am also working for Jared Lockhart Design.
Name two of your favourite designers and explain why.
Dries Van Noten I would say is the one designer that I have consistently admired for many years for his sense of romanticism and for the way he works with colour. I like his sensibility — the designs are never over-thought or too-of-the-moment. He creates permission for men in particular to embrace a sense of languidness that I think feels emotive and eternal. My second all time favourite designer would be Miuccia Prada. While I do admire the work she has done recently and the way she works with co-collaborator Raf Simons (who I also admire) it's her earlier work that I feel more connected to. The craft sensibility and her dark sense of humour. There's a wit to her clothes that I am drawn to - like a subtle wink. I think there's something special about that sense of irreverence.
Personal style can be about how we want to present ourselves visually to the world — how do you intend for your clothes to present you?
I like my clothes to support my beliefs and how I like to move. I've grown up heavily inspired by sportswear — specifically surf and skate culture, basketball and tennis. I like to feel at ease, but I do like to celebrate the artistic merits of clothing design. Adornment and jewellery are elements that I have more recently started to enjoy implementing into my daily dressing. I like the idea of wearing treasures that you've collected along the way, from my travels or pieces handed down from family members. Culture and representation are important elements that I incorporate into my styling and my personal style. I like the way POC designers like to challenge Western ideals of formality and dress, and I try to weave some of that into my own self expression. I also like things that aren't too trend-driven, and have a strong approach to artisanal methods of making. Pieces that celebrate local makers and designers is something very important to me when building a wardrobe that stands the test of time.
Share your first fashion or style related memory from childhood.
I grew up with a grandmother who always sewed our clothes. She would often find scraps of material from her weekly trips to Barker & Pollock and come home and whip up some shirt or a pair of dungarees on her old Singer sewing machine. Seeing her create freely with whatever materials she had gave me an insight to taste. It prompted me early to think about why I liked a certain colour or fabric and having that ability to enjoy wearing clothes that not every other kid was wearing made me feel cool. This carried into my formative teenage years when self expression at an all boys catholic school manifested itself openly on mufti day. My first mufti day I was the first kid at school to wear a pair of Tommy Hilfiger tearaway track pants which everyone in my class kept complimenting me on. This was 1997. Standing out quietly through clothing is something that has continued to guide my decisions when getting dressed.
Who and what most influences and inspires your style?
Dries Van Noten, Miuccia Prada, Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood.
Barcelona, Berlin, Tokyo.
Navajo jewellery, knitwear, 90s Polynesian Pride, Sunday best dressing, tuxedo shirts, denim.
POC brands such as Campillo, Kartik Research, ZN Ali.
Skaters. 1940s tailoring.
Do you have a favourite film for costume design and fashion references?
Film is actually the most pivotal force for me as a stylist. I love movies and I love ones that can convey a story through costume.
I like fashion references that poke fun at fashion. Robert Altman's Pret-A-Porter (1994) remains an all time favourite, and a great snapshot of 90s fashion from every spectrum. I studied Italian Film at university, and was really drawn to Antonioni's L'Eclisse. Alain Delon and Monica Vitti both would look fine wearing potato sacks, but the way they moved in their costumes felt natural and sensual on screen. I've referenced Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love several times in shoots — including one on the streets of Hong Kong, and remains an all time favourite. The costumes make that film really. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) is another favourite. Like most of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, the colours and textures are sublime. And of course every back catalogue of Pedro Almodovar. It's not just the costumes, but it's the cinematography and use of saturated colour that really takes you to another world. My favourite would probably have to be the perfect chaos of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). Another pivotal film for me would be Run Lola Run (1998) directed by Tom Tykwer. Franka Potente's flaming red hair, singlet, cargo trousers and combat boot combo running around Berlin in the 90s is a trip back in time I love to make through the power of film.
How do you think the Aotearoa landscape, surroundings and culture feeds into your own aesthetic, if at all? And if you don't feel it does, then what does?
It plays a big part in my aesthetic. I am fortunate to be able to meet and converse with designers from all walks of life, and some of my favourite are with our indigenous community of designers who use the beauty of te ao Māori and embed that naturally into their design ethos. I learn a lot from our Māori designers because there are so many parallels with my own Pacific heritage that I easily relate to. I've invested in a lot of contemporary Māori jewellers — there are so many that I am in awe of, particularly the work of Stevei Houkāmau — an uku artist based in the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington Region. I've been thinking a lot about Aotearoa style — in fact it was the basis for an exhibition I co-curated with Doris de Pont and the New Zealand Fashion Museum in 2019 ' Moana Currents: Dressing Aotearoa Now. I think about how so many of our ideas around New Zealand fashion aesthetics are tied to nature. It's natural to think like that of course, but I'm now more interested as a born and bred central Aucklander how Māori and Pacific Islanders dress in the city. What is the reality for brown people living and dressing in urban spaces? That feel more natural and personal to me.
Do you feel the pandemic has affected the way you dress? If so, how? If not, why not?
I think it's given me more opportunity to wear a tracksuit more openly. Sometimes with a pair of loafers.
Your most embarrassing fashion moment to date?
Possibly in 2007 when I was working at My Hart which was like the coolest shop in town at the time in O'Connell Street. It was very of the moment — selling Linda Farrow eyewear, Lover, B Store, Lonely Hearts Club, Gail Sorronda, Josh Goot. I did the skinny jeans with the leather Marjan Pejowski jacket and plaid Lonely Hearts Club shirt for some time. And suede brogues. I look back at it as a lesson learned, and I cringe everytime I see photos of myself from that era.
Your most iconic fashion moment to date
I don't know Sauce, there's too many (lol).
I think one was when I wore a Filipa K suit with a large obnoxious floral corsage attached to my lapel at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023. It's like the Oscars for journalists so you can imagine the sort of fuss that goes on for people who are obsessed with being in the media. I never had that obsession.
Best vintage store in Auckland?
Hands down I would say Driss from Tango is my go to for really good vintage. He has access to people and pieces that are hard to come by and I think he's got an incredible eye.
What are the best runway shows that happened during your lifetime?
Runway shows I think can still serve a purpose in really distilling a brand's spirit in its most purest form. When I think of runway shows now, they almost feel clinical. But in my lifetime, I'm so fortunate that I lived in a period where we had Alexander McQueen. You can't replicate that kind of honest storytelling. The ones that resonate specifically are fall 2007, spring 2007 and of course spring 1999. Shalom Halow being painted by two robots feels ominous in hindsight when we think about the way fashion feels in 2025.
Now runway shows feel like they need a gimmick or a viral moment to feel valid, but I think when you look back at the honesty behind McQueen shows, that still stands the test of time.
I've had the fortune of attending some really special shows over the years. Nicholas Ghesquière debut for Louis Vuitton at the Cour Carrée at the Louvre in 2014 was a special moment (I also loved that he played New Zealander Connan Mockasin during the show) and Prada's spring/summer 2016 collection in Milan was one of my favourites. Romance Was Born is always a highlight at Australian Fashion Week, and in a sea of too slick blazers and same-same brands, they know how to deliver a beautiful show that feels personal and more importantly, original. Close to home, there are some magical shows that you will never forget. Kate Sylvester's 'Stop Your Sobbing' from New Zealand Fashion Week 2005 will go down in history as one of the best shows of all time at the event; along with Zambesi's show at the old St James theatre that same year with Pluto playing in the background. That show captured the zeitgeist of the time so perfectly.
Follow Dan on Instagram @danahwa
Interview by Zeenat Wilkinson
