“Being third generation of our family in the New Zealand Fashion industry, I spent my younger years trying desperately to do anything but fashion. Then having realised the addiction to constant change and my love of textiles, the touch, drape and fluidity of fabrics, I headed to Melbourne to study Fashion Design away from any family connections.
I was away for five years and when I returned to New Zealand I learnt to commercialise my craft in a big Auckland based fashion house, before I was ready to step out and start Taylor.
From one small store on Jervois Road, to now days having five physical retail stores throughout New Zealand and two online e-commerce channels. From three employees to 30, from using faxes to communicate to daily emails and instant messaging, from photographing everything on film to digital immediacy, from print media to the new and constant changing social media platforms, the changes as the industry has become a global entity have been constant.
Taylor is known for everyday luxury that empowers and inspires through its design and has seen steady and constant growth. Now days Taylor holds a quietly strong market identity where quality, creative individualism and design integrity are coupled with social responsibility to create the corner stones of our business.
Our unparalleled quality fabrications and textiles are sourced from some of the best mills in Europe and Japan, and luckily these bi-annual trips to Europe to source textiles keep our creative energies aligned with the world and makes us appreciate the beauty and synergies that come from living and working in a place as special as New Zealand.
Taylor still proudly manufactures in New Zealand and this is how we maintain our attention to detail, and infuse our garments with hidden unexpected details. This area of the industry has seen such huge change over our business life. As the global marketplace and price competitiveness become the main consumer driver, we have watched our industry struggle to align with falling prices, rising local labour costs and now days over supply — as any consumer can shop the world for their needs. We stress when you buy New Zealand manufactured garments from Taylor you help to keep five other skilled New Zealand business in business.
In a world where brands can be built in a day by fashion influencers and celebrities who are given everything with very little brand alliances, hundreds of thousands of dollars of free things are thrown at these people in the hope that they may one day wear one piece and then will hopefully be photographed while wearing it…
Taylor does not operate in this world and stands by enduring quality and the fact our hard working clients, who are clever, thoughtful and chose to spend their disposable income with us are our brand ambassadors. They have supported us and nothing gives us more pleasure than seeing them succeed through their lives and knowing that their Taylor pieces have empowered them to do this.
A few of our brand achievements have been dressing the Silver Ferns when they were world champions in 2005, in made-to-measure off court uniforms, being selected by Harpers Bazaar as one of the New Zealand brands to watch, and discovering one of our 2016 campaign images on Italian Vogue’s Top 50 Images.
Collecting two NZ architecture awards for The Shelter store design, and more recently being in the first three NZ brands to be selected to sell on Farfetch.com, the biggest luxury fashion site worldwide.
The Shelter, our second business was started in 2014 with an aim to adapt and give a platform to the changes in the industry. This space is a sanctuary from the everyday, a place where the time challenged consumer can now shop for inspired design and discerning objects from fashion to homewares, fragrance, skincare and food, all under one roof. In a curated design environment we allow emerging New Zealand talent across many sectors to showcase their products in an award winning designer environment. With highly qualified sales and strong brand teams it allows emerging designers to bring their brand identities to life in a real market place and play with window displays and retail assets without being burdened by the full costs of an individual stand alone store.
The Shelter aligns some of the best New Zealand design talent beside inspiring global designers and artisans and we love the way the quality of design can easily stand side by side and resonate and connect.
Now days so many things in our industry have changed, although the one constant is that I am still inspired when I see an amazing fabric. I see garments I want to make, I see outfits and combinations and I still love making people feel great about themselves when they wear my clothes. There is nothing that will make you succeed when you feel uncertain or have a better day or night out, than when you have a new outfit to wear - the perfectly designed outfit matched with the right person = success.”
