Alexandra Owen: Climbing the ranks

Fashion designer Alexandra Owen in her Wakefield Street workroom and shop. Photo / Mark Mitchell

There are many young fashion designers in New Zealand, but few with the cerebral and quiet confidence of Alexandra Owen.

The 27-year-old launched her label only four years ago, and has quietly grown it to be where it stands today - a flagship store in Wellington, critics lauding her as one of our brightest talents, and an invitation from the organisers of New York Fashion Week to show as part of the event in February.

All of that, yet Aucklanders have largely been unable to buy a piece of Alexandra Owen, unless they happen to head elsewhere to purchase it - until now. Owen will open a pop-up store on Broadway in Newmarket from Saturday until November 29, the first time the full Alexandra Owen range will be available in Auckland.

Owen has a vision that belies than her 27 years. Rather than focusing on anything too trend-based, her designs are minimalist and intellectual, always with an architectural and tailored bent. Her label is a reflection of herself: subtle and restrained. "I'm not really into things that are loud and ostentatious," says Owen on the phone from her Wellington workroom. "Colour has never really been a big thing for me, it's always been about the shape. It has always been pared back and restrained. It's just the way I do things."

Owen launched her namesake label in 2006, a year after graduating from a fashion design course at Massey University (and half a year studying architecture). Working at iconic boutique Scotties during the day, at night she developed a range of coats, which owner Marilyn Sainty decided to sell through the stores. "Everything sort of expanded from there," says Owen. "I did a slightly bigger range the season after that and it just got bigger, and I had to branch out and sell to more people." Owen says she had always shown an interest in fashion and design, and had known for a long time what she wanted her own label to be like.

"It has always been this way; even back at high school I knew it had to be an architectural label, with a foundation based on tailoring. I knew what the aesthetic was going to be like, it was going to be a little bit brooding but very beautiful and very wearable."

It's this unshakeable confidence and steely resolve that Owen's PR Murray Bevan acknowledges as one of the things he noticed first about her.

"Alexandra is a unique girl, with no shortage of confidence and belief in what she does. Back at Air New Zealand Fashion Week in 2006, Alexandra turned up on the doorstep of my showroom with an invitation to come and see her the next day to view her collection. She'd done her research, found out who I was and what I did, and decided we were the right partner for her. From there it was an easy decision to say yes, based on her collection and where I could see she was headed. It's been fantastic to be a part of Alexandra's growth as a label since then."