Next New Zealand – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 / NEXT 63

‘HAVING THE

STORE ATTACHED

IS IMPORTANT TO

US BECAUSE WE’RE

CONSTANTLY

INVOLVED’

a dinner where we’re not talking about

something to do with the business.

Is it hard, to leave work

at work?

You just don’t, you can’t. You don’t because

it’s part of your life.

How has the brand

evolved over time?

Simon and I were both obsessed with

fragrance; we were starting to think about

what we could make to push the business

into more of an international scale, because

of clothing being different in each

hemisphere. I think that whole hemisphere

thing is changing now; I don’t think you

have to follow it so closely, but fragrance is a

product that doesn’t change seasons. That

was a journey; it was a two-year process to

make our perfume.

What did that involve?

It was thousands of samples tested

and tried; it was really exciting. We worked

with a perfumer who was trained in Paris,

and you go out there and come up with

concepts and ideas. He’s very energetic

and has lots of fruity things going on.

So we came up with a whole lot of ideas

and he sent us samples and testers to try.

You might love something, but you need to

know it’s something you want to smell all

the time and still love it. Sometimes they

had turn up on the courier and

you’d open the packet and just recoil, or it

would be a winner. It was fun, but it got to

the point where Simon was like, “You just

have to choose something!” So we stripped

it back and that’s how we got to where it is.

Tell me a bit about your

new store and space.

We’d been looking for a new workroom for

about two years. We didn’t want to move

from the strip because we love where we

are, we love our neighbours, we love the

park, we like this end of Ponsonby Road –

it’s got a real family feel and we’ve built up

a strong customer base who know that

we’re here, but we were looking to move

workrooms. Having the store attached is

important to us because we’re constantly

involved. When people want hems taken

up, we can do them in an hour. It gives us

way more of a connection with the

customers. When we heard this space was

coming up – it’s the same landlord who

owns the whole block – we said we’d love it.

Then we had to just sit still as the old

workroom became fuller, so much that we

couldn’t even move. At one point I had

a complete rack up against my desk that

I had to move just so I could sit down. Then

our new workroom became free and it’s

the dream. It was meant to be. It was so

stressful holding out for this, not knowing

if it was the right thing to do, but it paid off.

Do you ever learn things

or take direction from

customers in the store?

Absolutely. Especially in our last workroom,

you’d hear lots of conversations about the

clothes. You don’t know who’s in the

changing room and they don’t know that

we’re out the back. I’ve been in the

changing room before when I was styling

for a shoot. It was a busy time, customers

coming in, and there was a mum and a

daughter. Listening to all the little things

they’d say about the brand, it was so cool,

so rewarding. And even the negative, like

talking about the shapes or saying “she

always does the arms a bit too slim”, we

take that into the workroom. That’s

something we hear direct from the

customer and that’s great.

Why is it still important
to you to be opening
bricks-and-mortar stores?
Online is our best store, it does the
most trade, but for that to happen, you still
need that connection with the customer
and that feedback. The experience
you have coming into the store, touching
the fabric, talking to the staff, that’s
all really important to us and I think
it creates how you want the brand
experience to be.

• Photographs

Bauer Media Studios and supplied

Q&A