FLOX embodies authentic connection to Aotearoa New Zealand, and her work is an invitation for others to do the same.Twenty years after she launched the FLOX brand, she’s blazing a new trail. She shares her homecoming journey with Belinda Nash.
In the early 2000s, the creative force known as FLOX, Hayley King, set Tāmakai Makaurau Auckland’s cityscapes ablaze with her larger-than-life vivid Aotearoa native flora and fauna stencil street art in a riot of fuchsia, cobalt and lime. Just two decades later, she’s established herself as a sustainability advocate, and one of Aotearoa’s most commercially successful artists and visual storytellers.
FLOX continues to champion our most precious taonga — our native kea, pīwakawaka, tui and tuatara. But Hayley has inevitably matured, with Aotearoa’s wild beauty now expressed in “hero Pantones” of mauves, pinks and teals, in prints and statement keepsakes and — “When the weather’s good” — her signature hand-painted murals.
But like any 20-year journey, it’s not been without challenges.
The artist, entrepreneur and mum shares her Newton home in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland with her partner and two vibrant pre-teens, while her 18-year-old has flown the nest to Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.
“It’s a sweet location for us,” says Hayley. “We’re in this lovely bubble where we’re not wasting our lives stuck in traffic, so I’m truly grateful.”
The safety of that bubble was briefly threatened, however, following a call after a recent mammogram.
“I had a health scare this week,” she begins. “It turned out that I’m fine, but it was a scare. After my mammogram — just the usual squish — I got a call saying, ‘We’ve seen something that’s a bit weird, can you come in?’.
“I told my partner — he’s my absolute rock — and then we were on this total roller coaster. It was like I was outside of my body looking in and analysing what my brain was doing and what I was able to control and what I was not.
“I noticed that I kept yo-yoing between light and dark. I’d be thinking, ‘Of course, you’re gonna be fine’, then, “Well, they sounded really serious.”
It turned out to be just unusual breast tissue, but the experience put the 46-year-old face-to-face with her vulnerability, and the realisation that there’s a lot of life yet to live.
The Story behind FLOX’s Homebound Collection
Hayley is sewing seeds to return to the land where she grew up, south of Te Oneroa-a-Tōhē Ninety Mile Beach, which inspired her Homebound collection.
“I’m from the absolute top of New Zealand,” she says. “From a small town called Kaitaia. So I’ve spent a lot of time in Ahipara at the base of Ninety Mile Beach. My dad lives there now, and my partner and I bought land there three or four years ago. We’d love to be able to build there one day.
“It’s nice to feel like I’m going back to where I’m from.”
“The land is gorgeous. It’s on a hill, looking down to Shipwreck Bay, and on a good day you can see all the way up to the top of Aotearoa.”
It’s not insignificant that Hayley plans to return to where the beach’s namesake tīpuna, Rangitira Tōhē of Te Aupōuri, also of Ngāpuhi and Te Tarawa descent, took his final journey. A place which continues to hold deep cultural and spiritual meaning for many New Zealanders.
The Haus of FLOX Homebound collection carries three sub collections: Whenua, Wai and Ahi. Each one channels the visceral energy of Aotearoa’s elemental forces; the grounded pull of Whenua (land), the life-giving energy of Wai (water), and the potent spark of Ahi (fire).
The collections include everything from vegan leather clutches, belt bags and luxury overnight bags, to cosmetic cases, velvet purses, FLOX’s “hot property” diaries, calendars and notebooks, and of course, prints.
Hayley says she’s been intentional in Homebound to develop elevated colours that evoke Aotearoa.
“Whenua is beautiful greens, deep forest colours, mosses and our coastal sands. Wai is our crystal lakes and waters, with deep teals and blues, bringing the feeling of movement. Ahi is vibrant, and captures the energy of fire.
“I work hard to create narratives and authentic pieces, so people feel connected back to our whenua, to our land and back to where I’m from.”
Ahi’s Fiery Evolution
Fire symbolises resilience and evolution, and FLOX’s newest collection Ahi celebrates the iconic brand’s 20 year milestone, “ignited by the fire of 20 years,” Hayley adds.
“Ahi is one of the elemental forces of Aotearoa; Ahi’s also the fire that drives me and my business.”
Hayley says there’s been “a kaupapa from day dot” at FLOX to create art and objects where anyone who wants to can own a piece of the brand. Hayley insists every design must have two things: function and beauty, and in Homebound, it’s travel and personal items.
“Everything has to have a purpose and be beautiful; I create synergy with those. But there’s a deeper narrative going on about connection.
“There’s a kind of maturity about these collections,” she adds. “FLOX is definitely more grown up than it was 10 years ago. Some products are more stripped back, with only the artwork on the inside as the liner, like the little velvet cosmetic cases.”
Do Not Leave My Umbrella Unattended!
Hayley knows how precious each FLOX keepsake is. Like her three-time collaboration with Blunt Umbrellas, which was built on reliability and connection to the FLOX brand, and because “Kiwis love Blunt” — something she was reminded of recently.
“My lovely sister-in-law walked up to the food court the other night, and she asked if we had an umbrella. I said yes, but told her, ‘There’s some serious rules around this umbrella’,” she laughs.
“I said ‘Do not leave it unattended, and do not forget to bring it home, because it’s my pride and joy, and there are no more’. They’re all limited editions, so if I was to lose mine, it wouldn’t be good.”
Accelerating Creativity Using AI and Commercial Savvy
The classically trained art school graduate, who used to hand-draw each stencil with a scalpel, has embraced AI to work “smarter not harder”.
“I don’t do too much hand cutting anymore,” she says. “I bought an iPad Pro at the beginning of COVID and I taught myself how to use Adobe Fresco to create my stencils — because after so many years hand-cutting, it’s pretty hard on the body.”
This year, Hayley replaced Midjourney with ChatGPT to speed up her creative concept phase.
“AI’s been a really useful tool for reference imagery; I can create my stencils from those”
“Creatively I know what I want, so I can give ChatGPT really direct briefs. I’ll say, ‘Give me a flying Kea from New Zealand, with its wings up’, which is unnatural for a Kea to be flying like that, and I give it the aspect ratio I want and it’s done. It saves me so much time.
“That kea became the Ahi keychain.”
Hayley’s also taken on the commercial arm of FLOX, owning the end-to-end product process. She’s had to build seamless systems: from artwork and product design, to production, and delivery out to retailers and customers.
It meant engaging a business mentor, talking to a consultant, tapping into her former business studies, and growing her business networks by visiting suppliers in China, Hong Kong, and India — where building trust on both sides is crucial — as well as attending nationwide tradeshows to meet Kiwi retailers.
Hayley’s vision to become a wholesale distributor with several employees has paid off, she says, adding, “Things are running smoothly and creatively, but also logistically. We’ve got more than 120 stores in New Zealand now.”
“My art is very much the heart and where my passion stems from, but I’m loving doing the products — It’s just so much fun!”
With a fresh colour palette, the arrival of Ahi, and being one of Aotearoa’s most sought after artists, after 20 years, the FLOX fire may be just getting started.
