When the impulse strikes to add variety to your daily outfit rotation, why not look to our local burgeoning designers? Not only are you supporting the next generation of New Zealand fashion talent, but chances are you’ll also find something utterly unique.
Caitlin Crisp
Having launched her eponymous label just over a year ago, designer Caitlin Crisp has already displayed an aptitude for creating feminine, wearable and timeless pieces for the modern woman. Utilising largely natural fabrics and with an aim to support the New Zealand fashion industry wherever possible, Crisp engages the services of local fabric and trimmings manufacturers and craftspeople. We’re in love with the linen summer suiting from her new collection, which is set to be released in early October.
caitlincrisp.com
Kaiso
Self-taught machinist and leather worker Summer Gribble creates versatile and elegant accessories by hand at her Auckland studio. Inspired by her Fine Arts training and background growing up in Barbados, Gribble uses fashion to tell a story and her pieces are designed to combine aesthetics with functionality, quality, versatility and longevity. The Griot bag (pictured) can be worn multiple ways, with magnetic closures that enable it to be expanded or compacted, and the option to affix either a long or short strap.
kai-so.com
Layplan
Friends and co-designers Talia Soloa and Lavinia Ilolahia are the duo behind Layplan, a made-to-order brand based in Auckland. Working with joyfully voluminous silhouettes and statement shades, Layplan has built a loyal following on social media, and a newly-launched website makes this clever pair’s designs even more accessible.
layplanstudio.com
Leo Leo
Specialising in limited runs of well-made streetwear staples, designer Leo Pagani’s use of colour and unique graphics sets Leo Leo apart from the crowd. For his latest collection, Pagani was inspired by the fashion, music and architecture of the noughties. Reinterpreting the Y2K era for our modern times, he utilised futuristic typefaces and ‘blobjects’, rendered in vivid colours on his signature T-shirts and sweatshirts, introducing the brand’s first knitwear piece and style of trousers.
leoleo.co.nz
Dominique Healy
New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based designer Dominique Healy founded her self-named label three years ago, specialising in trans-seasonal and carefully considered separates, dresses and knitwear. Her background in the fabric wholesale industry spurred her love of fabrications, in particular deadstock fabrics from mills in Japan, Hong Kong, France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, the use of which prevents them from entering landfills. A curated selection of Healy’s signature voluminous-sleeved pieces is stocked locally at Muse Boutique.
museboutique.co.nz
