The beauty of the Taranaki landscape is inspiring a young Irish designer as she establishes her own fashion label in her new home.
Terri Clements blends the colours and shapes from nature with ideas inspired by the New Zealand climate and lifestyle into garments for her Wabi label.
The term Wabi comes from a Japanese word, Wabi-sabi, which means the beauty of things imperfect and impermanent and, appropriately for a fashion label that takes its inspiration from the natural environment, natural processes and intimacy.
A niche fashion label, Wabi concentrates exclusively on women’s wear, at the upper end of the market.
“At Wabi we normally get commissions for women who want something for a special occasion.”
Wabi recently celebrated its first birthday and with a new collection planned, its owners are confident the business will continue to improve in its second year.
Fulfilling a dream
The label fulfils an idea Terri had when she was still living in the UK. A trained designer (she has a BA [Hons] in Fashion Design from the Edinburgh College of Art), Terri had worked as a freelance designer producing designs and storyboards for manufacturers, and clothes under her own name. However, in the highly-competitive European fashion industry most of the jobs she was offered were either in men’s fashion or swimwear, neither of which she was particularly interested in.
“A friend and I were on the verge of setting up a children’s wear label, when I moved to New Zealand. My partner, Maurice, had been living here for a while, working as an optometrist in New Plymouth, and he asked me to come out here for a holiday.”
Terri says she got bored doing nothing, so looked around for a job, and found one with a woman who was in the process of setting up a children’s wear business.
“However, that never went ahead, but I could see there were opportunities here. So Maurice and I decided to set up Wabi. Because Maurice has residency, it was easier for him to set up the business, although as an optometrist he doesn’t have much to do with it day-to-day. We went through all the proper channels and advertised to make sure there wasn’t a Kiwi person who was qualified to do the job. So, I got my work visa and I’m now employed by the firm.”
Finding a niche in New Plymouth
When Terri and Maurice decided to make New Zealand their home, they could have moved to Auckland or Wellington, but they had both lived in big cities and wanted to follow their own path in a place they loved. However, New Plymouth’s distance from the main cities, and establishing a successful fashion label from far away means a lot of travelling and cold-calling. Terri found it quite daunting at first and wasn’t sure how she would be accepted.
“It’s really refreshing because everyone is so helpful. It’s not like that in general in the UK fashion industry. It’s such a cut-throat business there that people want to hang onto what they have. People here are more giving and helpful.
The Government has a number of schemes to assist small businesses in getting established, which Terri says were a huge help.
“We had help from Venture Taranaki and we also have a mentor, an accountant, who’s been very helpful. Being a foreigner I thought I might have some difficulties, but they do make it easy for you to set up a small business here. I’ve also had lots of good advice from friends who run businesses here.”
Making a name for herself
The first year of starting a new business can often be a difficult and trying experience, especially for those working by themselves. For Terri, it was a case of getting out and meeting people, making contacts and making her label known.
“You meet people in the strangest of ways. One of Maurice’s patients suggested to the 2003 Miss Taranaki, Kushla Rosser, that she should get in contact with me. I made a dress for her for the Miss World New Zealand competition in August, and she modelled my white collection for a photo shoot for a newspaper. So, my name got around through her, and I got a good response to her dress at the Miss World contest.”
Local inspiration, national ambitions
Terri finds living in New Plymouth provides a lot of good reference points, such as being by the sea, and the local arts and crafts scene.
“New Plymouth almost has its own microcosm of inspiration. There are a lot of very talented people here, such as weavers, which is really refreshing as a designer because there are a lot of new media we can use and fresh ideas. I think if I was in Wellington or Auckland I would have a lot of the same fashion influences as the other fashion cities in the world. In New Plymouth it’s new and different.
“When I came here and saw the lovely flax weaving I just thought ‘wow’. It’s inspired me and I’m designing a new collection for Wabi at the moment, which has a lot of weaving inspired by the Maori kete or flax baskets.”
During her four-year design degree, Terri spent two years studying silver- and gold-smithing, concentrating on weaving metals, such as copper, sheeting and shim, and knitted silver wire. New Zealand flax weaving has inspired her to start dabbling in jewellery again. She doesn’t have her tools here, but she has made some fabric jewellery, handbags and accessories.
“I love using natural fabrics, such as silk and wool. When I first came here I thought that paua was amazing, because I’d never seen anything like that before. I prefer to use local materials, such as paua shell and bird feathers, because they are in such abundance.”
Design for the future
Terri is also trying to get her garments into some shops in Wellington and Auckland. She believes it is important they go into the right sort of shops, which suit Wabi’s image.
A couple of local stores stock Wabi accessories, but they are small lines and mostly one-offs. Even the collection she is doing now will probably only include three sizes. However, the New Zealand fashion industry is quite small, with a lot of boutiques that stock small ranges, and those are the shops Wabi is aiming for.
Despite the distance from the main markets, and the small size of the New Zealand industry, Terri believes Wabi can be a success.
“We didn’t go into this with our eyes shut. We did a lot of research and got information from Venture Taranaki about income trends, so we know it is viable. We have bought a house and this is going to be our home now. It’s been an exciting year and we are looking at getting bigger and better.
For further information on Wabi, please contact Terri at: wabidesignltd@hotmail.com.