I cried, a little, when I heard the news. Last week I wrote about ‘what to do when your fave closes down’ – a reflection and reaction to all the closures that were being announced across fashion, retail, hospo and the arts, and the grief and bad vibes that came with it. Little did I know that I would be returning to that piece a week later, taking my own advice.
Kate Sylvester is closing her business after 31 years, making the decision to wind down and close in mid-2025 – opting to end on a high. That’s over three decades of helping to shape New Zealand fashion – and with it, a small part of our cultural identity (yes, the way we dress can do that) – growing from an ‘emerging’ brand (then called Sister) to be one of the country’s most established and well-known. Kate Sylvester is, as designer Wynn Crawshaw of Wynn Hamlyn told me on Wednesday morning, one of the few brands that we have that could be considered ‘heritage’.
The news was shocking, even for those like me who have been observing the changes happening within our local fashion industry of late. Newer brands, who launched into a much more fragmented market than Sylvester did in 1993, recently announced closures too, including Mina, Starving Artists Fund, Benjamin Alexander, Maaike and Hej Hej – but for a brand of the establishment generation to make the call fills me with dread, and a huge amount of respect.
Recently I bumped into an industry friend and we talked about the struggles of the industry – both fashion, and media (this news came the same week that TVNZ and Newshub announced their various cancellations; pretty bleak) – and they made a comment that’s stuck with me since: that the closures we had already seen (pre-Kate’s bombshell) were just the start, and that they thought we’d have half the industry by this time next year. That’s confronting, albeit not surprising, and I appreciated the honesty.
Fashion is an industry that has always relied on a lot of smoke and mirrors – naivety or delusion, depending on your point of view. I’ve felt this even more so recently, with a focus on marketing over product – designers are expected to be creatives, marketers, retailers, content creators, trend forecasters, spokespeople now too. All while designing what may feel like an endless stream of clothing that will actually sell while pushing the envelope and sparking desire.
Some, like Kate and her partner in life, creativity and business Wayne Conway with their work in establishing Mindful Fashion NZ, have taken on the mantle of trying to uplift and support the future of the industry itself, too.
It’s a lot of work. Even overseas, well-known designers like Dries van Noten and Pierpaolo Piccioli, of Valentino, have in the past month decided to step off the treadmill. Similar issues have faced the Australian fashion industry for years – the Guardian ran a story last year headlined, ‘How Australian fashion fell to pieces’ – and in February, US-based publication The Cut published a story that explored the financial realities facing independent designers.
If I sound a little gloomy, it’s because I am. It’s important to stay positive – be an industry cheerleader – while also acknowledging the very real challenges that our local fashion designers and businesses are facing. That’s something that Emily Miller-Sharma, general manager of Ruby and co-founder of Mindful Fashion NZ with Sylvester, was also feeling (she too cried when she heard the news).
“Working in the clothing industry is all consuming and at times bloody hard going. I sometimes wonder if as an industry we do ourselves a disservice by only presenting the beautiful, polished side,” she said. “On one hand – that's what we do – we know how to make things look good, and often on a shoestring. But there is a very real grind and force of will required to just keep on going. It is inspirational that Kate and Wayne have seen that they are at a stage of their lives where they want to choose a different day-to-day.”
Elisabeth Findlay of Zambesi, who explored selling in 2019, was also open about the realities. “As Kate has stated it is time for the new breed of designers to shine, however the reality of maintaining a brand is not for the faint-hearted.”
We have also been here before. The GFC was another tough time for the local industry, where we saw several local brands close – and several others launch.
"There are always tough times and good times, that’s eternal,” said Sylvester this morning. “What we're going through at the moment is nothing new – it’s the cycle of how the economy works and how business works.” She’s excited by the talented young designers coming through.
“I think we need to be really looking at the question, how do you build a brand for the contemporary world we live in now?” said Sylvester. “I've been too close to the coalface to think about that. But that's such an interesting thing because obviously we would create a brand and build our business completely differently now than what we did 30 years ago.”
Where does New Zealand fashion go from this moment? How do we make a sustainable industry for designers, young and ‘old’? These are similar questions that I asked during NZ Fashion Week last year; I’m not sure we’re any closer to having answers.
In 2020 Sylvester spoke at SemiPermanent about her creative process, and reflected on her brand’s beginnings and how the environment then, in the early 90s, mirrors where we are today. “Another cauldron of creativity is starting to bubble,” she said, speaking specifically to younger members of the audience about the looming recession and its potential “moment of hope” and opportunity for creativity. Today, she still had that same hope.
“The superpower that our industry has, that’s so impressive, is how quick we are to change, to pivot and navigate to something new. I love that about our industry,” she said today. “I think that so long as you've got new, young brave people coming through, businesses [and the industry] will continue to evolve.”
