Pacific Fashion Week is set for Sept. 18-19 at the Kaimana Beach Hotel, pairing a Friday industry conversation with a Saturday runway and shopping program. Gravitas Pasifika is presenting the inaugural two-day event, according to KHON2.
The program
The Friday "Designing the Pacific" session is planned as a talk-story discussion involving designers, educators and other fashion-industry figures. The conversation will address careers, business, culture and identity in Oceania and is aimed at students, creative professionals and others exploring fashion careers, KHON2 reported. Saturday's "Indigenous Life: An Evening with Samson Lee" will combine cocktails, access to Lee's collection, a runway presentation and a closing party with pūpū and drinks.
Two designers, two local connections
Fijian designer Samson Lee is scheduled to headline the Saturday presentation. The appearance will be his second Hawaiʻi runway, following his local debut at FestPAC in 2024, according to KHON2.
The weekend also features Native Hawaiian designer Kini Zamora, who represented Hawaiʻi on Project Runway in 2015. Zamora operates his design studio and manufacturing business from Hālawa, Oʻahu, according to HI Now.
A post-FestPAC test
The event follows the visibility generated by the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, which Hawaiʻi hosted in 2024. FestPAC brought nearly 3,000 delegates from 28 Pacific Island nations, KHON2 reported. Salā, Gravitas Pasifika's president and CEO, has framed fashion as a potential avenue for work in design, manufacturing, media, tourism, hospitality and the arts as Hawaiʻi looks to broaden its economy, according to the station.
The economic and public-space context
The event's economic rationale sits within a broader creative sector, though the available statewide benchmark is more than a decade old. A Hawaiʻi Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism report counted 47,264 creative-industry jobs in 2011, with average annual earnings of $46,625 and a 13.8% net change in jobs from 2001 to 2011. The Waikīkī shoreline setting also involves public park management. City and County of Honolulu audit records include Kaimana Beach Park among Department of Parks and Recreation maintenance observations dated Sept. 17, 2019, according to the Office of the City Auditor.
That proposition gives the inaugural festival a business question as well as a cultural one: whether a concentrated event can help Pacific designers gain sustained attention and opportunity in Hawaiʻi. For now, the organizers are using a compact program of discussion, retail and live presentation to test that possibility.
