Fresh from their inaugural Rosemount Australian Fashion Week show and with the imminent release of their mini documentary (made in conjunction with glacéau vitaminwater) Pedestrian caught up with New Zealand design trio Stolen Girlfriends Club to talk about the beach, Sydney intimidation and dry ice.
Can you describe your “Life’s A Beach” collection – what are the key pieces? I think this collection is quite a change for us. Our aesthetic still remains intact but we have used a lot more print and colour this time. Our key girls piece is the Batcape Dress. A fitted bodycon jersey dress with contrast Croc Print denim panelling and a silk Georgette cape that goes from sleeve end to sleeve end. It looks beautiful when in motion. For the menswear – the prince coat is my fave. A French linen sateen full length coat. Unlined and light for Summer, so even though the fabric is very luxe it has a not too precious “lived in” feel to it.
What were your inspirations for the collection? Like always it came together very last minute! Our main inspiration came from the idea of beach gangs and tribes that live on the beach. For the ladies we had two threads that ran throughout the collection, on one side we had a more feminine and floaty feel with cute dresses in a digital Aztec yardage print – this tied back with out sateen tailoring. And then on the other side there was a real street tough vibe that featured bodycon pieces, pieces with croc denim panelling, quite a sporty feel too with some of the strong shouldered tee dresses. We even put pillow stuffing in the shoulder panels to beef them up. I also think subconsciously we were influenced in some way by Sydney – because we were shooting there. Sydney-siders do wear a bit of colour, and this range was out most colourful to date.
How are you guys feeling in the lead up to your first RAFW showing? We were so freaking nervous. We have done NZ fashion week like three times now and we almost feel like seasoned veterans there. But coming to Sydney for our first time it really did freak us out. We just had no idea how the media would react. Perhaps it felt like getting naked in front of all these people you didn’t know – blindfolded? Yes I think that sums it up.
Do you feel an affinity with other NZ designers? Yes of course, because we all know each other, we know each other’s work and respect each other, in general. We come from such a small country that is very detached from the rest of the world. I think the NZ design aesthetic is refreshing and unique.
You guys are known for multi-disciplinary collaborations – what have you got planned collaboration wise in the future? Yes we do like working with other people, like for our Sydney show we worked with these super cool installation artists. They work with Dry Ice and projection among other things. I would definitely like to do a collaboration with them for NZ fashion week, something totally different.
Stolen Girlfriends started with print based men’s tees and then expanded into more considered mens and womenswear – was this an organic process? Yeah it was totally organic. We have no formal training in fashion whatsoever, so the tee shirt seemed like the first thing we should try to tackle. It turned out that even tee shirts were hard to make. As we learnt our craft more we challenged ourselves with adding more complex garments into the range. It’s been great to see the collections evolve as we evolve as designers.
And finally if life really is a beach how has your surf background influenced your work? I think it has kept us very relaxed! Because no matter how tough shit gets sometimes, you can always peace out and go surfing to take your mind off things. It keeps us sane!
