Fashion
My Heels are Killing Me
My Heels are Killing Me was the first ever fashion podcast made in New Zealand and the first of it’s kind for national broadcaster, RNZ. During my time as an arts reporter, I had always slipped in fashion stories where I could despite the producers challenging me on the ‘relevance’ of fashion as artform.
Fashion in my eyes has always been about the intersection of business and creativity. And during the four seasons of this podcast, I feel like I succeeded in providing an insight into not only its relevance but why fashion is necessary…because no matter how you look at it, we all need clothes. My approach for the content was to build stand-alone, timeless stories that also said something about the society and culture we live in.
Listen to the podcast on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
“Clothing gives us a voice, enabling us to challenge the status quo and create a unique identity that speaks volumes, even if we can't.” - Sonia Yee
There are many things that have ignited my interest in fashion from rummaging around in my Mum's wardrobe as a kid to making clothes for my dolls and being exposed to the eclectic street style famously photographed in FRUiTS magazine.
The latter was prompted by a very early obsession with Japanese fashion as a form of 'creative expression built on social constraint'. Along with this is the idea that clothing gives us a voice, enabling us to challenge the status quo and create a unique identity that speaks volumes, even if we can't.
I have been fortunate enough in my career to do work in the fashion space, alongside some incredibly inspiring and talented people. Whether creating a website for emerging designers ‘New K!D’, producing and presenting New Zealand’s first ever fashion podcast for RNZ, ‘My Heels are Killing Me’, as well as being invited to judge final year designer presentations and emerging designer competitions… to speaking at public events on topics such as the future of fashion.
Fashion Panels and Judging
“With her years of experience in profiling emerging designers and offering fashion critique through various media streams, Sonia was a great fit on the moderation panel as an invited guest for the student end of year design presentations, communicating valuable new insights and perspectives to students and faculty alike.”
— Sue Prescott
Programme Leader – Fashion Senior Lecturer
Ngā Pae Māhutonga / School of Design, Toi Rauwharangi / College of Creative Art
Miromoda judging panel, 2019. From left to right: Dame Pieter Stewart (Founder and Director of NZFW), Designer Adrian Hailwood, and Sonia Yee.
I was delighted when Director of Miromoda, Ata Te Kanawa got in touch me for the first time to ask if I would be a judge for the Miromoda Designer awards competition back in 2019 . When she called, I remember being so confused and taken aback that I asked whether she had called the wrong number by mistake.
It turns out the phone call was intentional. I was asked to sit alongside Dame Pieter Stewart and designer Adrian Hailwood and assess the designers coming through the competition, which was both humbling and a complete honour.
I had closely observed the work that was coming out of Miromoda at New Zealand Fashion Week over the previous years and immediately recognised the high level of craft, construction, overall level of design and a shift away from preconceived ideas of what indigenous design should look like. The work spoke to me in volumes. Ata Te Kanawa has built an incredible platform for designers coming through the industry that enables them to have a voice and share their incredible stories with New Zealand and the world.
“We were thrilled that Sonia 'got us' before she even got to know us. Inviting her to get more involved as a judge for our 11-year-old annual competition seemed logical, if not a perfect scenario.
Her in-depth knowledge of fashion from so many aspects means she is able to articulate her critique in a professional, respectful and supportive way.”
— Ata Te Kanawa, Director Miromoda- Indigenous Māori Fashion Apparel Board
Building a platform: ‘New K!D’ was about carving out a space for emerging designers
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Creating a Brand
I founded New K!D in 2018 as a means to create a beautiful, yet edgy, Asia-Pacific focused platform for fashion stories, articles, profiles and more. I built the platform and brand from the ground up, briefing a graphic designer for the logo and selecting other creative talent for creative projects launched through the site.
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A Place to Write
New K!D started as a place for creative discourse on fashion. It was about bringing new designers and their voices into the fold, and identifying stories that were relevant both here and overseas. For some time I could see a parallel happening between designers coming from Asia and a new breed of designers in New Zealand. Bringing them together made sense for me.
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Building a Directory
Working in the media and producing and writing stories in the fashion space, I started to see a need to support young emerging fashion designers, which formed the basis for New K!D. I then hand-picked designers from across Aotearoa and Asia whose work I wanted to showcase on the site.
New K!D gave me a chance to experiment with styling.
The site allowed me to experiment with styling. As someone who loves playing in a visual space, I wanted to pair garments by emerging designers with those that could be bought off the rack. Then I was inspired to write short stories or even poetry to accompany the looks, informed by the characters that emerged. It wasn’t about being commercial, but I saw it as an art project.
