New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Wears Maori Cloak To Queen's Dinner At Buckingham Palace

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Wears Maori Cloak To Queen's Dinner At Buckingham Palace

New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, made quite the style statement, attending the Queen's Dinner at Buckingham Palace Thursday evening. Ardern was in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and arrived at Buckingham Palace wearing a traditional Māori cloak (or Kahu huruhuru).

 The Guardian explains that the cloaks are traditionally "bestowed on chiefs and dignitaries to convey prestige, respect and power."

Mark Sykes, an expert on the Māori special collection at the National Museum of New Zealand, further explained the garment's significance to the publication, stating: "Cloaks are worn for warmth, protection and to symbolise your status and mana [power]."

He continued, "I think it shows how she is portraying herself as a leader of Māori, of all of New Zealand, of everyone."

Eye: London Launches Commonwealth Fashion Exchange For Sustainability | Kering Offers Online Course On Sustainable Design

SOPHIE, COUNTESS OF WESSEX, AND CATHERINE, DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE

Eye: London Launches Commonwealth Fashion Exchange For Sustainability | Kering Offers Online Course On Sustainable Design

"We're not talking anymore; we're doing," said Livia Firth in describing the Buckingham Palace celebration of the Commonwealth Fashion Exchange. Firth has long championed the human potential of fashion to make positive impacts on the lives of people -- especially women -- while reforming the damage wreaked on the environment by fashion. Baroness Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth secretary-general, joined Firth in launching what Vogue calls "perhaps the biggest set of collaborations in history."

“At Eco-Age, we have so many conversations about how to get people to understand the negative effects of fast fashion. We thought this was a real opportunity to demonstrate the handprint, not the footprint, of fashion," said Firth about the Queen's State Rooms,  "lined with more than 30 sustainably produced, handcrafted ball gowns, representing the cultures, identities, and creative skills of 52 countries, from the large—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Britain—to the tiniest of islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean."

The overarching point, said Baroness Scotland, “Is about engaging young people and using fashion as a thread that connects everyone.” She quoted staggering statistics: A third of the Commonwealth’s 2.4 billion citizens are under the age of 30—a vast generation primed to be interested in fashion and involved in it as workers. “It is the second-largest employer of women in developing countries.”