Overview
A home-based cottage industry
Janice Hopper founded Kowhai Knitwear in 1966. As a mother with young children, she was looking for a job that allowed her to work from home. Fascinated with the new domestic knitting machines on the market, she purchased a 'Knitmaster'. She began knitting children’s clothes for a shop in Khandallah, Wellington, and subsequently took on other clients. The latter included a ski wear company, specialising in Norwegian-inspired knitwear. Janice recalls that a particular colour combination ‘turned a Norwegian design, in my eyes, into a Maori design'. Believing that there was a market for knitwear featuring Maori designs and indigenous fauna and flora, Janice founded Kowhai Knitwear.
Janice operated Kowhai Knitwear from her Wellington home. At the height of her business, she employed 15 home-based knitters. Each knitter had to apply for a license, and their homes were regularly inspected for safety. But working around children was never easy. Janice recalls:
'Nobody knew how much they earned an hour because they had so many interruptions. Taking children to the toilet just as you get started, then half an hour later running out to get the washing in. One girl, for safety, worked in a playpen while her children played around her in the lounge. Everyone was safe and we got our licenses'.
A Pākehā knitting Māori designs
‘It was an exciting time. We were on the cusp of a huge swirl of emphasis on Maori design in fashion wear.’ Janice Hopper, 2014
Although a Pākehā New Zealander, Janice saw the potential of the application of non-sacred Māori designs to knitwear, and found a ready market amongst Māori, Pākehā New Zealanders and tourists. As Kowhai Knitwear's reputation grew, organisations, such as the New Zealand Māori Council, and individuals commissioned bespoke designs. These included garments featuring patterns belonging to their whānau (families).
The company produced a wide range of products including jerseys, capes and ponchos, and accessories such as scarves, hats and headbands, dresses and even three piece suits. They could be purchased through a range of outlets around the country including Returned Servicemen League shops and the Ethnic Art Studio in Wellington, a boutique specialising in indigenous inspired designs.
A political statement
The Ethnic Art Studio boutique was owned by Whetu Tirikatene Sullivan, a dynamic Parliamentarian who was passionate about politics, fashion and Māori design. An avid wearer of Māori design, Whetu was keen to support the development of Māori fashion, and opened the boutique in Perret’s Corner, Wellington in December 1972.
The Ethnic Art Studio sold Māori and Polynesian inspired designs by 20 makers, including Kowhai Knitwear. The politician and her family were frequently photographed wearing Kowhai Knitwear designs. In 1973 Whetu Tirikatene Sullivan, on behalf the New Zealand Industrial Design Council, had the pleasure of presenting Kowhai Knitwear with the Souvenir Design Award.
On the world stage
As Janice Hopper’s designs were immediately identifiable with New Zealand, she was commissioned to create garments for a range of special events that showcased New Zealand internationally, including fashion parades, beauty pageants, international trade fairs, and promotional tours, one of which starred New Zealand entertainer, Howard Morrison, along with six dancing models, for whom Janice designed five outfits each.
End of an era
Janice Hopper began to wind the company down in the late 1980s, and closed it in 1993.