charmaine love first entered onto the fashion scene last year when she won the coveted supreme award at the westfield style pasifika in auckland. she also took out the awards for the “three piece collection” and the “menswear”categories. against stiff opposition the self taught 27 year old designer from wellington impressed judges and the public with her unique ability to combine maori design founded on traditional images with urban fashionwear.

as well as making a name for herself in the local fashion industry charmaine is building a formidable reputation as a designer of choice to international stars such as robbie williams, jack black, 50 cent, ben harper, akon, nelly and fergie, singer of the black eyed peas who wore one of charmaine’s dresses on the red carpet at the aria music awards.

charmaine and husband dan own kia kaha clothing, a wellington based clothing company which is in partnership with new zealands number one golfer and current us open champion, michael campbell. charmaine single handedly designs, sources and oversees the production of the fashionable cambo range of sports clothing that is distributed

worldwide. charmaine’s latest cambo design the “mangopare” received worldwide

recognition when michael successfully held off the challenge of tiger woods to win the 2005 us open. donald trump was so impressed with charmaine’s design he ordered six replica cambo shirts.

new zealand fashion week marks the launch of the charmaine love collection