facebook.com/vanillaink.boutique
twitter.com/VanillaInkNZ
Physical Address: 293 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden & 438 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland.
Operating Since: I began on the 2nd April 2001, almost 12 years ago.
What kind of clothes do you make?
Vanilla Ink is stroppy and rebellious - we believe that some of the latest trends are unflattering and irrelevant & at best contribute to landfill. Good clothes should last season after season. We make beautiful, colourful clothing with a slight nod to fashion but more focussed on finding our customer's individual style. Versatility is really important to us, creating pieces that can be worn in more than one way.
We are also playful and kind; we've never understood how cool morphed into hostile. Apart from the sheer joy of designing, pattern making and choosing beautiful fabrics, we have fun with our clients. Problem solving and flexibility are really important to us - if changing a hemline or tailoring a garment slightly differently is going to make it sing, we'll do it and usually for no extra charge.
We also hold evenings for groups of busy women on request, providing wine, food and styling. These are inappropriately good fun.
Who makes your clothes?
I design, pattern-make, make most of the samples and do most of the cutting. I keep the first three jobs for myself because I love it so much. Going from idea to reality is bliss; cutting I do kinda because I have to. I have two machinists, Kim and Rabya, they're great, they live locally and it suits them to work from home because they have school-age children. I see them everyday and I'd hate to lose them. We stubbornly reject manufacturing offshore; producing locally increases spontaneity and ensures a good quality of life for our machinists - it's worth the extra money to us!
Who sells your clothes? Can we buy them online?
We have the two retail stores mentioned above. We are in the process of adding an online shopping feature to our website but for now people can email or phone to purchase if they're out of Auckland.
What price range are your clothes in?
Our clothes range from about $89 to almost $300.
(It's hard to keep NZ-made clothes cheap.)
Why do you think NZ clothing labels outsource their manufacturing overseas?
Honestly I think the only answer can be greed or survival. Sometimes I wonder if my business, so hands-on and local, is a dinosaur. I'm not going to change though - I don't want to do it any other way.
What could the Government do to help clothing labels keep it in NZ?
The goverment could do the following: 1) care; and 2) campaign for buying NZ-made again, making mention of the fact that if money is spent in NZ on NZ-manufactured product then the total spend is contributing to your local financial health.
Anything to add?
Check out the 3/50 project, started by an American woman at the beginning of the recession - it's very interesting.
