SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
The rise of bespoke Kiwi fashion brands
Bron Eichbaum had one last goal to conquer in her 40 years in the fashion industry – to set up a label reflecting her love of androgynous, well-made clothing.
When she launched Herriot last year, the 56-year-old Wellingtonian began creating limited runs of timeless, anti-fast fashion garments that were locally made.
There’s a sense that Herriot could be a runaway success, but Eichbaum wouldn’t want to compromise her values. When Jacinda Ardern wore a pair of Herriot pants in a Vogue fashion shoot, the designer had 750 hits on her website in mid-February, but not a single garment to sell.
Looking back, it was a crazy, whirlwind few days for the mother-of-three who laughs: ‘‘The clothing was off production at the time. The whole experience was just, wow, insane. But the shoot was amazing. Jacinda looked beautiful.’’
Just a few weeks before Eichbaum found out that the Prime Minister might wear her pants, she tramped the Heaphy Track and contemplated walking away from the brand she launched early last year.
"I came out of the tramp thinking I do want to do this, but I am going to do it to the beat of my own drum. If I can’t make it work that way, I won’t do it. I wasn’t going to affect my health and family time.’’
Since she left Burnside High School in Christchurch, Eichbaum has worked across the spectrum in the fashion industry – shop assistant, window dresser, model, modelling agency manager and founder of Wellington’s first upmarket recycled store, Soup.
Now the full-time product designer at Silverdale knitwear, she says launching her own fashion brand was the last frontier of her fashion industry career, something she always wanted to do. ‘‘I didn’t want to go to my grave without trying this. It was something that had been niggling me.’’
Eichbaum is part of a growing trend for small, bespoke fashion brands being launched in New Zealand. Sold online and in a rising number of selective boutiques that prize quality over quantity, collections are released in small drops and limited runs like prized art works. In Auckland, the women’s brand Mina launched last month, while its founder, Natalie Proctor, continues in her day job.
In Wellington, Georgie Veitch crafts exquisite, limited-edition jackets under her Georgie label, selling them in the Wellington boutique Ena. Brands like these resist fashion trends, and they also reject the fast fashion, offshore manufacturing model that dominates the industry.
Prizing local craftmanship, Eichbaum hops on her e-bike and rides to a small factory in Newtown, where a number of machinists stitch and sew her designs. Back on her bike, she delivers the finished garments to the Wellington store The Service Depot. ‘‘Sustainability is really important. I’d never get so big that I’d need to go offshore.’’
Herriot styles are made in tiny batches. For her first collection, Eichbaum made just eight of her coats, and six of her pants. Eichbaum’s designs are slouchy, comfortable garments with a playful androgyny. Designs that she likes to wear, Eichbaum loves nothing more than seeing a stranger in a Herriot top or one of her boiler suits. ‘‘That gives me the biggest thrill.’’
Her latest Herriot capsule collection is ‘‘all about freedom. The textiles can be worn coordinated or rebound off each other for an eccentric flair’’. Inspired by the Roma people, the self-confessed tomboy says, ‘‘I love the way they cross genders with oversized garments, because it’s not actually the right size for them to begin with, and recycle and repair them when they can.’’
It’s a similar story in Dunedin, where Darlene Gore makes limited-edition classic garments under her self-titled label. The 49-year-old has also worked elsewhere in the industry, as a tutor at Otago Polytechnic, and as co-owner of a former label. The
I’m inspired by styles by Dior, where garments transcend time and resist fashion trends. Darlene Gore
‘‘I do a happy dance when I see that person wearing one of my coats.’’ Jane Avery
mother-of-two also took a break in the middle of her career to work as an embalmer for a local funeral home, and then to run the local Women’s Refuge.
Two years ago, Gore put a couple of her coats in the local design collective, Guild, which inspired her own label. Sewing each garment herself, she creates classic, timeless pieces in limited drops of up to half a dozen pieces each.
‘‘I love using beautiful fabrics like cashmere and I also focus on the structure of a garment, making sure it’s made well. I tell the buyer how to care for it, with a lot of instructions, so that the garment lasts.’’
It’s a nod to her past, as Gore grew up wearing beautiful camel coats made by her aunt. ‘‘I’m inspired by beautiful styles by Dior, where garments transcend time and resist fashion trends.’’
Also in Dunedin, Jane Avery makes high-end coats and jackets out of fabric and rabbit fur sourced from a Central Otago rabbiter.
Launching her Lapin label at iD Dunedin Fashion Week last year, the 47-year-old former TVNZ journalist has always made her own clothes. When she turned 40, Avery pursued her dream for a label.
‘‘I’ve always loved beautiful, high-end clothes and I had been looking for a niche. I design for women who want a luxury garment that is also an artisan one, for women who appreciate handcrafted things. We’ve been swamped with fast fashion for so long, and Lapin is a rejection of that,’’ she says.
At $2500 to $3500 a pop, she estimates each jacket takes her 30 to 40 hours to make.
The self-taught tailor says: ‘‘I like taking my time with something. I also like building up a rapport with the woman who orders one of my designs, and I do a happy dance when I see that person wearing one of my coats.
‘‘You don’t get that same relationship with something bought off the rack.’’