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Zoe Walker Ahwa and Rebecca Wadey are the founders of Ensemble, a digital media platform where sharp editorial meets cultural commentary. With the tagline "for intelligence and whimsy," Ensemble has carved out a distinct voice, offering thoughtful recommendations, expert beauty and wellness guidance, and a discerning eye on street style from festivals to events.
Timed with International Women’s Day, we had the pleasure of speaking with Zoe and Rebecca shortly after they reclaimed independent ownership of Ensemble.
We caught up with them at the iconic Hollywood Cinema ahead of their first event of 2025, an exclusive New Zealand preview of The Last Showgirl, Gia Coppola’s latest film.
Zoe – Rebecca and I met around 2006 while working at the newly launched fashion website Runway Reporter. I was a recent journalism graduate starting out as a fashion and beauty assistant, and Rebecca was helping founder Stacy Gregg pitch the site to advertisers. We stayed in touch, and as often happens in New Zealand’s close-knit fashion and media circles, we became friends and later colleagues again (I was deputy editor at Viva and Rebecca as wellbeing editor). I’ve always been drawn to people in the industry who aren’t afraid to have opinions and can see through the posturing, and Rebecca has always been exactly that!
Rebecca – Yes we met way back when Zoe was recommended by her lecturer at AUT as the perfect person to assist Stacy. She was impossible to avoid after that - her hard work and talent saw her career thrive. She joined FQ when Stacy sold the Runway Reporter site to Bauer, then was a vital force at Viva for almost 10 years amongst other high profile positions. It was always clear she wasn’t afraid of hard work, hard questions and having an opinion - quite unusual in lifestyle media. I’d long wanted to work with her again.
Zoe – We launched Ensemble shortly after Bauer Media collapsed at the start of the pandemic; a chaotic and unsettling time for fashion and media (and pretty much every industry). That uncertainty gave us the freedom to take risks we might not have otherwise. We both loved fashion and media but were feeling disillusioned with where they were headed. We also saw a gap in the market for something smart, journalistic and values-driven – fashion content that didn’t take itself too seriously but still had purpose and a genuine and proud connection to being from Aotearoa. Not to get too deep, but at the time I was editing Fashion Quarterly, a role I had considered my ‘dream job’ – until I got it and quickly realised it wasn’t (very glass cliff vibes). I felt a strong need to create something of my own (with help!), and that became Ensemble.
Rebecca – I’d worked as head of marketing at Lonely for an extremely brief time before having a lovely reprieve at a multinational beauty brand where all the staff were treated well. But I really hated the influencer outreach and lack of locally relevant stories and decided what I really needed was a life break. We rented our house in Auckland out and moved to the Coromandel, enrolling my kids in a local country school and going barefoot 24/7. We ended up locked down there and it was the perfect space to really think about what kind of a world I wanted to return to. When Bauer closed I was really devastated for Zoe, but I honestly couldn’t believe she was prepared to take such a leap of faith with me. She’s easily the best editor in the motu and a complete visionary, packaged in a quiet, twee, ‘I hate attention’ exterior – quite unheard of in the industry, lol.
Rebecca – Literally proud of everything. Yes, the Lonely story because we were trusted with the stories of so many wāhine (and I knew other media had tried, and failed, to do it in the past). But also myriad others, like Zoe taking the Auckland Central electoral candidates to fashion week – who else would ever think to do that and what a clever way to showcase our two worlds and how connected they really are? I loved Saraid de Silva’s piece on grief, that really resonated with me. We’ve worked with so many incredible contributors across writing, photography, makeup, styling etc – everyone brings me new inspiration. We also had three incredible team members over the past three years when we had a salary, Tyson, Lara and Georgie, who innately understood us and bought tremendous value. We are now in that murky middle ground where we are more a duo than an ensemble, without drawing an income and without the capital of a start-up.
Zoe – Many people would say the Lonely story, which we worked on with David Farrier, as it was one of the rare instances locally of ‘proper’ reporting in the fashion space. Or our many opinion pieces (lol: we love an opinion). I’m very proud of all those but what I’m proudest of most is creating a platform that gives young or first time writers and creatives a chance. I love being surprised – and challenged – by young creatives! I also love being able to guide and boost the confidence of writers to craft a story they are really proud of; it is the best part of my job.
Zoe – Our events are very much driven by Rebecca, who has an innate talent for creating a welcoming vibe and sense of fun. Since launch we have talked about hoping to create a community both on and offline, with events where people feel welcomed and not intimidated. I think the secret to our Ensemble events is that they are charmingly and unapologetically imperfect. We’re excited to do more this year!
Rebecca – Even though we’re a digital platform we’re both wary of the role the digital space plays in society, and believe strongly that IRL connections are of utmost importance for everyone – including ourselves!
Zoe – This is so true! I think these types of venues convey character, soul and, again, imperfections – things that I hope represent Ensemble as a brand too.
Rebecca – One of the first things we said when discussing our brand was that Ensemble wasn’t perfect, it was to be personality-led and a bit chaotic and messy (just like us!). We do our events because we want to, not to satisfy any external stakeholders. Even when we were owned by a large media company and we held our bingo night at the Old Folks Ass, I don’t think we actually asked permission, oops. We are lucky in that my brother-in-law owns the Hollywood cinema and they are very tolerant of us turning up with our giant bow and other oddities. They are just as beautifully chaotic as us, in a very intentional way.
Zoe – Independent journalism is the future. There is and always will be a place for mainstream media and traditional newsrooms, but I have found the relentless drive for audience and pageviews and pivots to [insert strategy of the month here] really off-putting and detrimental to what journalism pretends to be. Sorry to be cynical! Being independent allows more flexibility, less pressure to perform to data-driven metrics and allows you to be closer to your reader. I think in the lifestyle space especially, smaller and niche and hyper-engaged is the future, and we are spoiled for choice.
Rebecca – What Zoe said! I think as newsrooms are getting tightened around the motu, lifestyle journalism is seen as an easy cut. And glossy mags are struggling as they are expensive to produce at a time when revenue is reduced. When we started Ensemble we felt strongly we wanted a platform that loved and celebrated women/our readers, not one that made them feel judged or less than, as many traditional publications do (often inadvertently through the ads they run). To me our true independence means an open dialogue with our readers, who inspire us more than they will ever know. I guess that’s another reason why we like events, it gives us a chance to really connect with them.
Zoe – Our tagline since launch has been ‘for intelligence and whimsy’, and that comes across in our visual identity. We like things that are pretty, weird, playful, undone, colourful. In 2020 we made a Pinterest board for our original website designer, to show the feeling we wanted the Ensemble brand to convey, and the sensibility is still very much the same: we have always known who we are.
Rebecca – We know what we are and what we are not! We are not subtle, tonal or ‘perfectly curated’. We are unapologetically girlie and a bit messy. Crazy to think that ruffled some feathers when we first launched (pun intended), with some industry folk thinking that meant they shouldn’t take us seriously. One thing that I hope is clear to everyone is that we are very very serious about what we do. We just wrap it in lots of fun!
Zoe – There are so many ways people can join our Ensemble: read and share our stories, follow us on Instagram, buy tickets or sign up to come to an event, sign up to our newsletter. Tell people about us! We recently moved to Substack and launched a paid subscriber option for those who are able to support us financially – it’s $75 a year, or $7 a month, and you get exclusive content, free tickets to our events, plus other perks. We’re excited to be experimenting with it.
Rebecca – Visit the site, subscribe to our newsletter, pay if you’re able, come to our events, listen to one of our Spotify playlists, follow us on Instagram, reach out and tell us what you like and what you don’t like.
Thank you to Zoe and Rebecca for their thoughtful words shared with us and all that they give to the people through their work at Ensemble. We encourage you to explore their work and involve yourself in the wonderful world they are creating.
Imagery by the talented Danni Bishara.
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