10-07-2025
How the West was worn: The fashion of Outrageous Fortune
For Outrageous Week, fashion writer Emma Gleason unpacks the unmatched style of New Zealand's favourite westies.
The Wests burst into our consciousness in a flurry of leather and leopard print, canonising the style of West Auckland with an attention to detail not often seen on screens. Sharkies, black hoodies and leather jackets were rendered faithfully, and so too was the distinctive fashion of the Westie woman – a brash bricolage of animal prints, gleaming adornments and tight, tight denim. Seasoning all the flavours of this distinctive wardrobe were the fashions of the mid-aughts Aotearoa — skirts were short and cleavage out, T-shirts emblazoned with logos, and it was all very, very 2005.
Costume designer Katrina Hodge was tasked with outfitting Outrageous Fortune's rogues' gallery. 'I can't recall the exact brief I was given at the time, but the tone was clear: real, broken-in, lived-in, and iconic,' she says. 'Each character had a backstory, and that's where the work really began. To build an authentic look for each one, we'd deep-dive into their world and ask: Where do they work? What music do they love? What are their hobbies? Do they walk, drive, or ride a motorcycle? Who do they aspire to be?'
Understanding and reflecting a subculture faithfully requires research, and Hodge's took her to the West Auckland shopping mecca of Henderson Mall. 'It was gold. There were so many real-life Cheryls and Pascalle-types – women out on the town at the mall, sunglasses pushed up on their heads, hipster bootcut jeans just a bit too tight,' she recalls. 'There was a clear recipe these West Auckland women embraced: strong, overtly proud, bold, no matter your body type. It was a visual feast and an absolute gift in terms of sourcing and inspiration.'
Malls were where she built out Robyn Malcolm's wardrobe, sourcing a lot of her signature tight, lacy and low-cut tops from places like Hartleys and Max. Wealth markers mattered, of course, so there were designer brands in the mix too – Muse, Yvonne Bennetti, Sass & Bide, Miss Crabb – and Hodge even went shopping across the ditch (the height of sophistication at the time) to tap into loud Aussie glamour. 'I actually hopped on a plane to Sydney a couple of times and shopped at David Jones specifically for Cheryl. We didn't have David Jones in New Zealand, and their offering was quite different – more variety, and just the right kind of pieces that Cheryl could own.'
Cheryl's look was distinctive, regimented: shield sunnies, V-necks, tight bootcut jeans, high heels. In her interview for The Spinoff's Cover Story, Robyn Malcolm describes it as a form of armour. 'She was un apologetic, aggressive and very sexy about the way she dressed, and that immediately put me in a certain headspace,' she says. Though Cheryl's famously associated with leopard print, she didn't actually wear it until the end of season one. 'I'd sourced that leopard print dress specifically for the cast photoshoot, and from the moment I saw her in it, I was determined to get it into the season finale,' Hodge says. 'It wasn't intentional symbolism at the time, but in hindsight, it does feel fitting.'
Placing the costumes within the Auckland of 2005 and reflecting the material aspirations of the family saw Hodge sourcing local fashion labels to 'ground the show in a recognisable New Zealand aesthetic'. It's a roll-call that includes Zambesi, Lucie Boshier, Deadly Ponies, Lonely Hearts, Kathryn Wilson and, for Van and Munter, Huffer. Designers saw their pieces on telly each week and got behind the show. 'We bought quite a few pieces from Karen Walker for the show; she was incredibly supportive, and her designs often struck the right tone between fashion-forward and character-specific,' Hodge remembers.
Local designs most often appeared on aspiring model Pascalle (Siobhan Marshall), the most overtly trendy West. She was eclipsed only by the show's resident sophisticate Tracy Hong (Michelle Ang) who, thanks to her father's money, had the most obviously high-end, fashion-forward outfits of the series, all avant-garde (for Auckland) knitwear and edgy tailoring that communicated sexual power and business savvy.
Brevity was the essence of Pascalle's wardrobe. 'I used to call my skirts my belts, because they were basically belts,' says Marshall. Jackets were abbreviated too, so were tight pastel tracksuits and tiny handbags. With her white-framed shield sunnies and salon hair, she looked like a Hilton sister from Henderson, one who wore brands like Miss Crabb and Mala Brajkovic, both of which were big news in Auckland at the time.
So was Karen Walker, who had released her 'Liberal and Miserable' collection in 2004. Hodge had several pieces from that range, and would frequently dress Antonia Prebble in that iconic T-shirt. 'It just felt so apt for Loretta. The slogan captured her sharp wit, cynicism, and that early-era teenage defiance perfectly,' she explains. 'It said everything Loretta would, without her having to open her mouth.'
That top, and others like the D.A.R.E T-shirt, reappeared in the series constantly. Hodge says it helped to add authenticity, depth and continuity to each character. 'Clothes weren't just costumes – they were part of the world, part of the story. The scuffs, the stretch, the history in each piece made the characters feel more real,' she says. 'It was really important to me that their clothes felt lived-in.' Many garments were secondhand, sourced from op shops or vintage boutiques like Fast & Loose or Scotties Recycle.
Slogan T-shirts were integral for characterisation. 'Graphic tees played a big part in character storytelling, and I used them with real intention throughout the series. The slogans and imagery often carried symbolism or subtle narrative cues,' explains Hodge. Their very appearance was rebellious. 'Outrageous Fortune was one of the few shows where the producers and directors really embraced that level of subliminal messaging. On most productions, you're encouraged to avoid obvious slogans or text — but here, it became part of the visual language of the show.'
Van (Antony Starr) wore T-shirt that read 'Guilty' in gothic font, but his twin Jethro (also Antony Starr) used fashion to send a different message. A newly-minted lawyer, his blousy shirts sharpened up by season two, where he goes shopping for trendy striped shirts and leather jackets on Ponsonby Road with Hayden (Shane Cortese with blonde highlights). Many of the suits were from Fifth Ave, Smith & Caugheys and Crane Brothers, with Murray Crane himself custom-making the baby blue suit (kitsch!) worn by Ted West for his wedding in season four.
That look was an outlier though, as most of the series saw Frank Whitten dressed in his signature tracksuits (usually Adidas or Carhartt) and a cheesecutter. 'Frank could look just as dapper in a tracksuit and worn grey trainers as he did when dressed in his Sunday best. He had this quiet charisma,' says Hodge, adding that the late actor was a pleasure to dress. 'Effortless, grounded, and full of character. Always quiet in his fittings, but I knew when he liked something, as he would get a sparkle in his eye.' She adds that Ted was her quiet nod to The Sopranos.
There were other parallels between the television crime families. Singlets are beloved by bogans as much as made men, and Wolf (Grant Bowler) had a lot of them. He also wore swaggering jackets, matched only by his rival in love and leather, Wayne (Kirk Torrance), who got to wear what's possibly the best suede jacket ever seen on New Zealand screens. Another jacket, by Australian streetwear brand Tsubi – SO cool in the early 2000s – was such a uniform for Munter that Tammy Davis ended up keeping it after the show.
While a tool for building consistency, costuming also reflected narrative shifts and personal growth. 'As each character's journey deepened or changed course, their wardrobe evolved to reflect that growth,' says Hodge. Loretta was introduced to us with a definitive look: men's jeans, baggy T-shirts (very Lorde 2025) and Converse sneakers or, like Ted, Adidas tracksuits. 'But as she discovered her wily power and began to embrace her sexuality, her style shifted with her. She started to dress with more intention and confidence, revealing a new identity through her clothing.'
Speaking of revealing, even the underwear was critical to the world-building. 'Every costume started with the base layers and built out from there. Lingerie wasn't just functional but foundational to the look, the mood, and the character,' Hodge says. Particularly for Cheryl, it was a way of scaffolding her confidence and deportment. 'I often intentionally clashed the bra with the outfit, so it became part of the look – not something to be hidden. A red lace bra under a leopard print dress… a purple one under something equally loud. The girls, as we called them, were always front and proud.'
Twenty years on, it's the subtext of the show's styling – and its real-world counterparts – that still speak the kind of volumes that would warrant a noise control call out. All those nuanced fashion conventions in Outrageous Fortune communicated the way women wielded the social capital they had (usually sexual) and how a 40-something matriarch uses accessories to assert dominance. The costuming explored the hierarchies of masculinity, the uniforms adopted for differing vocations of criminality (bank robbers, bikie gangs et al) and the class tensions that still plague Aotearoa to this day.
The clashing, brazen style of Outrageous Fortune made an impact at the time, and formed part of a wider cultural shift in the mid-2000s towards bold, brash fashion and the reappraisal of class conventions. It's ripe for revival, with 2000s fashion tropes finding favour with Generation Z and older cohorts (like mine) returning to old favourites. Baggy jeans and graphic T-shirts are the uniform du jour of mall-dwelling adolescents, and low-cut tops and even lower jeans can be seen today on young women across the country.
Flashy fashion is back, along with a rebellious attitude, proving that – even two decades on – the Wests are still holding the bag.
