Some of the faces from Rags Are Riches (Māori TV / design Archi Banal)

Pop CultureMarch 25, 2022

Rags Are Riches is the fun show that proves style can come cheap

Staff writer

Some of the faces from Rags Are Riches (Māori TV / design Archi Banal)

A new series on Māori Television wants to show that fashion can be accessible for everyone.

Lance Savali is standing in The Warehouse, showing Aotearoa his undies. He’s just kicked off a fashion challenge for Rags Are Riches, a new series on Māori Television’s digital platform Māori+ that sees celebrities shop a new look on a budget. Produced by comedian Joe Daymond, Rags Are Riches wants to show viewers how to find affordable alternatives to high fashion. Or in Lance Savali’s case, high fashion undies.

Lance Savali in The Warehouse (Photo: Māori TV)

In each of the show’s six 15-minute episodes, Rags Are Riches stylists Courtney Dawson and Randy Sjafrie are challenged to create an outfit for a celebrity guest in only a few minutes and with a budget of around $100. While other fashion makeover shows have seemingly unlimited time and money to spend, Rags Are Riches keeps it low key and low budget, proving you don’t have to spend a lot of cash to create a distinctive look.

Episode one sees Courtney and Randy team up with dancer Lance and comedian Chris Parker, who have 30 minutes and $150 to spend in The Warehouse. It’s an erratic journey around the store, and no garment is safe. “What’s in, what’s cool?” Chris ponders next to a rack of white singlets. “Do you have undies on?” Randy asks Lance, after Lance sprints past the lingerie section to play with a basketball. Even in The Warehouse, Lance Savali dances to the beat of his own drum.

The chaotic energy of the first episode is part of the Rags Are Riches charm. As the clock ticks down, Lance opts for a hi-vis vest, while Chris rocks a necklace chosen from the kid’s accessories. There are no rules here. I grew up watching stylists Trinny and Susannah on TV, who stuck to fashion rules like they were the velcro on Lance’s hi-vis vest. We never saw Trinny and/or Susannah chuck on some neon orange with a lovely reflective strip, and their shows were all the poorer for it.

If anyone can make hi-vis fashion, it’s Lance Savali. “I give everyone a month and they’ll all be wearing hi-vis vests,” Lance says, and I believe him. “You could chuck him in a suitcase and he’d still look mean,” Randy agrees.

Randy Sjafrie, Lance Savali, Chris Parker and Courtney Dawson in Rags Are Riches (Photo: Māori TV)

But Rags to Riches wants us to embrace our inner hi-vis animals. There’s a relaxed, easy chemistry between hosts Randy and Courtney, as they whip up outfits for radio presenter Tegan Yorwarth in Save Mart, Breakfast host Matty McLean in Titirangi’s Re:Generate Markets, and actor Tammy Davis, who lays down his own challenge in Recycle Boutique. They make a bag with VNTGVAMP, a collective specialising in clothing and textile upcycling, and visit EFFN Clothing, where they repurpose an old pair of jeans.

They’re literally turning rags into riches, and it’s refreshing to watch a show that acknowledges we can’t all afford to drop huge chunks of money on clothes, or that people want to shop more sustainably. Rags Are Riches doesn’t want us to overthink things, and it’s not about following the latest trend. It’s about discovering a sense of style on a budget, working with what you have, and feeling confident in what you wear, regardless of the price.

Granted, some outfits are more successful than others, but as Chris Parker said, “true fashion is beyond words”. By the end, the success of the final outfit is almost not the point. Courtney and Randy have taken their guests beyond their style comfort zone by dressing them in a variety of pieces, in the hope of inspiring viewers with the confidence to try on high-fashion alternatives the next time they go shopping.

Rags Are Riches is a wee gem of a show. It’s as no-frills as the budgets in the challenges, but that’s part of its feel-good charm. It’s about celebrating a bargain, and it wants everyone to enjoy the way clothes can make you feel. Fashion should be accessible, style can come cheap, and hi-vis is in, mates. Lance Savali said so.

Rags Are Riches is available on Māori+.

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Aldous Harding’s Warm Chris is the singer’s fourth studio album. (Image: Supplied / Treatment: Tina Tiller)

ReviewMarch 25, 2022

‘Like doughnuts on dark days’: First impressions of Aldous Harding’s Warm Chris

Group Think

A bunch of people

Aldous Harding’s Warm Chris is the singer’s fourth studio album. (Image: Supplied / Treatment: Tina Tiller)

Critics having been anticipating Aldous Harding’s fourth album for months. What’s Warm Chris like? Four Spinoff fans take it for a spin on release day.

Alice Neville: I’ve been looking forward to this album for a long time and Warm Chris doesn’t disappoint. Harding has always had an uncanny ability to change up her voice for different songs but she takes it to new levels on this album, at times sounding like an entirely different artist from one track to the next. It somehow still flows though, and I love it more and more on each listen. There’s not a single dud track, and when I tried to choose a standout I ended up listing most of the album.

But today I’m loving the eerie, uneasy country vibes of ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain’ (no, no relation to that one) and the batshit but catchy AF ‘Leathery Whip’ that closes the album. There’s no getting around the fact that Aldous Harding’s music is quite weird, and this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But I plan on listening to little else for the next month, to the point I’ll probably go slightly mad. Can’t wait. PS Aldous, please do some shows in Aotearoa – no outdoor capacity limits as of this weekend!

Chris Schulz: At Womad in 2018, New Plymouth’s Bowl of Brooklands was a picture of serenity. I sat on a picnic blanket in fresh grass. Ducks swam on the moat around the stage. Aldous Harding arrived and spent the next hour breaking me apart. During one of the bleakest hours of my life, she plucked at her guitar and tormented my soul, her ghostly wailings shaking me to my core. “Heaven is empty,” she sang to close the night. Broken, I made it to the doughnut stand to recuperate. There, Aldous emerged, chipper and non-plussed about the damage she’d just done, queuing directly behind me. I couldn’t look at her, couldn’t bring myself to say anything. I was shook. Take the ferret to the egg. I needed those doughnuts.

Every time I listen to Aldous Harding’s music, I’m reminded of that moment: eating warm, cinnamon- and sugar-crusted deep-fried dough to recover from an incredibly bleak time. Her music always sounds familiar, drawing you in, wrapping itself around you. Then she eviscerates you, chilling you with warped lyrics, haunting melodies and her endless array of evocative vocal performances. Her albums should be stored in the record store tub marked “Murderously ethereal”. Warm Chris — it’s not about me, and I’m glad about that — is no different. “Guess we did what the other expected,” she moans, savagely, on ‘Fever’. My standouts are ‘Tick Tock’, ‘Lawn’ and ‘Leathery Whip’, but I’m going to be unraveling this record for months. The recovery period is going to take even longer.

Stewart Sowman-Lund: I love how unique Aldous Harding’s sound is, but also how every album has a distinct feel about it. This is very clearly an Aldous Harding album but it does not feel like a retread of what we’ve heard before. It sounds new. There’s a more mellow sound to all the tracks on Warm Chris. My personal favourites from initial listens are ‘Tick Tock’ and ‘Fever’. However, I think it’s unusual that ‘Old Peel’, released as a single last year, is not on this album as it would have fitted in nicely. The only thing missing, for me, is a big, memorable track à la ‘Remembering My Man’ or ‘The Barrel’ from Harding’s previous work and ‘Old Peel’ could have been that song.

Sam Brooks: The most disappointing thing about Aldous Harding’s new album is that ‘She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain’ is not a cover of the folk classic. The second most disappointing thing about Aldous Harding’s new album is that it’s aggressively lovely. It’s unlikely to make anybody mad, but if you put this on at a party or in a cafe, it wouldn’t really register. On this new album, Harding sounds like Joanna Newsom without the edge, the near-impenetrable depth, or the acute pop sensibilities. There’s nothing to really dislike about it, but I can’t help but want more for our most popular avant-garde pop singer – a little weight, a little heft, a little something to turn my head. There’s every chance it’ll grow on me with future listens, but I imagine those listens will be far and few between.

Warm Chris is out today.