About
Catherine McMahon, the creative spirit behind Kōkō
The passion behind Kōkō, the New Zealand concept store in Paris Catherine was born in New Zealand in 1967, and has always been very proud of her South Pacific roots. After completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Auckland she headed abroad, living in London and traveling extensively.
Europeans loved Catherine’s bold, elegant style and she quickly realized that New Zealand’s vibrant fashion scene had not yet made it overseas.
Catherine returned to New Zealand in the mid 1990s and spent the next 15 years working retail, including 4 years in Sydney, Australia.
Last year Catherine decided it was time to bring New Zealand design to Paris and in April 2010 moved here permanently. She is committed to sharing the cutting edge fashions of New Zealand with the rest of the world, to let them experience and enjoy the creativity and uniqueness that the dynamic New Zealand fashion scene can offer the world.
Fashion in New Zealand
New Zealand is the precious secret of the fashion world, with stars like Tyra Banks, Chloe Sevigny, and Madonna keeping a close eye on the scene and trend setting stylists, like Rebecca Weinberg from Sex in the City adding important New Zealand to their collections.
The fashion is sleek, modern and absolutely wearable with looks that turn heads across the globe. New Zealand’s isolation and distance from the fashion capitals of the world has contributed to it’s ability to develop a unique style and signature. The fact that it is !”new” country which has only been populated by Europeans in the last 150 years, has made into a unique melting pot
for cultures, ideas and creativity. There is an abundance of original thought,highlighting fabric and colour combinations that would fall outside the usual framework of fashion design. New Zealand fashion is constantly evolving and has distinctive qualities and through the hard work and continuous effort of great designers it is now being seen and appreciated worldwide.