Personal taste dictates success
Wanda Harland owner Martha Craig has ‘‘never really’’ been that into clothes. Two stores and a bustling family life later, her Wellington-based business has successfully made the leap from homeware to body wear, providing crucial retail therapy to fashion
That was an interesting pivot, fromhomeware to fashion.
The homeware business has changed substantially from back then [when I opened the shop].
When we first opened, there was that whole craft movement, a real appreciation for that sort of handmade aesthetic.
But over the years those big box stores are filling a niche that we were providing to some extent. Maybe we helped that happen?
But also my house got renovated and my kids grew up and so my interest in homewares and kids stuff waned anyway. I became interested in clothes, which I never really have been much inmy life at all.
I got approached by some really lovely brands, Kowtow and Elk, some good, solid ethical brands, so I thought, yeah, let’s roll with this and see how it plays out.
Your clothes are really beautiful, I don’t really see the sorts of things you offer anywhere else.
I didn’t have the money, when I had little kids, to buy nice clothes – it is somewhat of a luxury item – but I’mmore interested in ethical brands and supporting New Zealandmade.
I’ve got quite a lot of New Zealand brands but I also have a few fromMelbourne – preCovid I used to go over there frequently – and we have a few European brands because about four years ago we went to Denmark for a holiday and I just fell in love with their aesthetic.
TheWanda Harland style seems to be very modern, unfussy… there’s something almost architectural about the clothes.
My only strategy in terms of supplying the shop is would Iwear them? Imight not necessarily fit them, they’re not necessarily all suited to my form, but every single item here Iwould happily have in my wardrobe.
I admit that I’m really quite selfishly just catering tomy own taste.
Youmentioned Covid, howhave you weathered that?
It was incredibly shocking. I just had no idea what it meant at the beginning – it was freaky. But as soon as that government support package came in, and we started to see time frames, it was allworkable.
Top row: Martha Craig with her dogs, Pearl and Queenie; Craig and Barris in their Normandale home. Middle row: ‘‘I’m not minimalist, I’m not maximalist,
I just like what I like’’; The home is ‘‘designed for us’’, says Craig. Lucie Craig’s cosy-cute bedroom; The master bedroom, simple and understated.
We got lovely, lovely support when we reopened, people really flooded in. So, it’s been fine. We’re still here.
It’s designed for us. I get obsessed with getting the house ready as ifwe socialise a lot, but reallywe don’t, we just live very intensively at home ourselves.
We don’t go out a huge amount and the kids hang out at home, sowe’ve just catered to our own tastes.
[My husband] Glen works at Tilt Architecture in the CBD, but Iwork from home a couple of days aweek, and I’m always home with [my daughter] Lucie, who’s 11, after school.
Howwould you describe your style. You’re not allowed to use theword ‘‘eclectic’’.
My friend Evie Kemp saysmy style is ‘‘modern vintage’’, somake of that what you will.
I don’t know, I don’t really seemyself as vintage, it sounds a little bit cottagey and cute. I definitely love good materials. I realised that anything in the house that isn’t a goodwood or leather, or something nice and tactile, I’ll end up hating.
You get those MDF shelves and things
It’s honest, you’re allowed to see that underneath the scratches there’s more wood.
I’m not minimalist, I’m notmaximalist, I just likewhat I like. And we do have quite a lot of art, so it can’t get too chaotic, the art needs to stand on its own a bit. I don’twant it to be lost.
We do have an art group, we’ve beenmeeting now for almost 20 years.
We meet every two to three months, and each year we buy a piece each.
When it first started, a friend from university, who’s a lawyer, drew up a charter. But it’s incredibly casual.
It’s just a lovely opportunity to meet up. There are five groups of people in thewhole art group, andwhoever’s hosting [that quarter] buys the piece, then everyone just swaps them around.
There’s no orderly way of passing the art around, you just say, ‘‘Oh, I haven’t had that one yet.’’ andwe all take home something different each time. Then, at the end of the year, whatever piece you put in comes back to live at your house forever.
Wanda was the name of my tooth fairy when Iwas a child, andHarland was the namemy father wanted to call me if I’d been born a boy.
At university, some friends and Iwould make up fake names when we went to the pub, I used Wanda Harland and I just kept it as a blog name.
When it came time to name the shop, I was trying to come up with one of those designery names like ‘‘the white space’’, or whatever, but then I thought, nah, Wanda Harland.