"It's animal skin and it's sort of cut away at the back, you know?"
Yip, I saw a photo of Hunter wearing the gigi, on Alvos' website. It's teeny-tiny.
She points out it's also the same suit Raquel Welch modelled.
Alvos, maiden name Scrivener, is one of Tauranga's most successful business entrepreneurs and a New Zealand fashion pioneer.
Her multicoloured swimwear label, Expozay, became an international phenomenon over the 27 years that she, Tony Alvos, and Bryan Potter, built the brand. Expozay featured on the covers of Vogue, Dolly, Cleo and Sports Illustrated.
It was sold in some of the world's most exclusive department stores and worn by Princess Diana - Alvos knows this because Diana was photographed wearing a slinky, black Expozay one-piece.
The label, also featuring lingerie, ski wear and streetwear, was modelled by supermodel Elle Macpherson.
Alvos is reasonably modest about her success, saying she's quite shy. She's stayed out of the limelight for 10 years, having sold the business and only recently come out of retirement. But at the height of her success, surely people recognised her all the time?
"Well probably, because I was pretty out there," she says. "When you go to the supermarket in silver go-go boots, silver plastic, chain-mail mesh and you change nappies in the back of a Porsche. Yeah, I think people think 'who the hell is that?'.
Pushing other people forward
In those days Alvos was not only a fashion victim - her words - but juggling motherhood with appointments with international buyers.
She became fairly rich I imagine.
"Well in knowledge, I guess."
What about money?
"Well money comes and goes doesn't it? Unfortunately."
But did she live the high life?
"No, I was really a recluse. I would push other people forward to be honest. I was really shy. I just don't like the spotlight."
Does she like to think people are still wearing her designs?
"I do see that sometimes at the beach. I think 'goodness me, we made them too damn good in those days. They lasted too long'," she laughs. "But the fabric was really good, the quality was really good, and that was one thing about Expozay, we did use good fabric, good quality, good construction and they became collector's items I think, because they were unique."
Collectors items indeed. The bikinis, some early models, are being housed with other historic treasures, should a museum ever open in Tauranga.
Alvos wants her creations to be remembered for being different.
"Bit of same old gets a bit boring. I love colour - mustards, purple, anything. If you mix it with black, it's more dramatic."
Reversible and different
Alvos was born creative. Her whole family is arts mad. She went to Mount Maunganui College and then boarding school, before going to live in Australia. She started designing clothing at 12.
At 15, she made board shorts for all the Australian surfers who came to the Mount.
At 19, she travelled through Asia. Back in Australia, she sat on a veranda one day with her 12-year-old brother Greg, who was visiting from New Zealand, and, with the help of Asian fabrics, they started making bikinis.
Alvos sold them to her local surf shop without any trouble.
"They were reversible and they were different. And they were super tiny as well. The colours were really visual and hadn't been seen before. Cyclamen on yellow, cyclamen on turquoise, chocolate on bright yellow."
From here, it is a fast-paced success story. Alvos came back to New Zealand and opened a factory in Durham St. The company was the first to use Lycra in New Zealand.
After trial and error, Expozay screenprinted Lycra with hand screens. An artist would then air-brush by hand, multiple colours.
Oozing out of the place
"The impact was phenomenal and that just went crazy," Alvos says.
Later, they brought in a machine from Japan to do the sublimation, and then a fusing press. That machine operated 20 hours a day.
Swimwear was sent to Australia and Expozay opened its first retail store in Mount Maunganui in 1978.
It went "crazy", she said. "We had to get serious about employing people and getting a bigger factory so we went to Elizabeth Street in two [adjoining] buildings. We were oozing out of the place so ended up buying a factory in Fraser St and had about 120 staff at that stage.
"All the retailers wanted it. We went to the States and I took Nina my pattern-maker, who was 15 at the time. I got permission from her parents to take her to New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Italy ..."
Sak's Fifth Avenue successfully requested Expozay produce a different merchandise line for a one-piece. And later, it had four swimsuits in the prestigious Monte Carlo collection.
Buyers from Japan and Italy were coming to Tauranga. The whole thing just keep growing. Miami picked Expozay up for their cellophane suit - "see-through and wet".
What was Alvos' proudest moment? "Our proudest moment was really scary. It was when James Bond contacted us for the three suits that they saw [and] wanted for the James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985) ... We ended up flying to London to the James Bond studio.
"There were three styles they wanted and they were pretty sexy. They were solid and sheer and they were top sellers as well. When the movie was released in different countries we would have had to have thousands and thousands of units per size, per colour, and had to have it in all the countries. The whole distribution network, the whole thing, was too big and we had to turn it down."
A hungry little monster
Does she regret it?
"No. We would have had to have 500,000 units per style. It was too massive a contract."
Expozay was sold to investment company Hellaby Holdings in 1996 before being sold to Bendon in 2001.
"It was way too big. It was like a hungry little monster," Alvos says. "I didn't want to work for Bendon and live in Auckland with two little kids."
Those two little kids, Raphael and Leon, are now 22 and 21.
Alvos stayed in the Bay and has only recently come out of retirement, producing loud and funky clothing for young men under her new label ExpoJ. The clothing line, inspired by her sons, include slouch pants, skinnies, hoodies and hats with names like "lightbulb" and "Wee Willy Winkie". She is holding a talent search for local male models in November.
Lycra is dead
Is ExpoJ going to take her to the same level as Expozay?
"I'm not going to be having stuff made in China for a start. If I expand, then I'll be employing local people."
Is it good to be out of retirement?
"Yes, because it's brought me back into creative stuff again. It's really cool - I'm back into what I know."
Is there still a place for Lycra in New Zealand?
"Oh, no, no, no. Lycra's died. Definitely not. Oh no."
So no one out there should be wearing Lycra bike pants?
"No, they should be wearing slouch pants. If they pull them up high enough, they do look like bike pants."
Her friend of 48 years, Barbara Strange, says "Jude" is "an original and a classic".
"We were the chickie-babes," she says of their sun-kissed days at Mount College. "Judy has always been right out there showing the world how it is. She put Tauranga on the map and people became more aware of Tauranga being a beach place because of Expozay. She has this amazing, creative mind - I still remember the wrap-around skirt and the wrap-around shorts." Would Alvos ever consider designing swimwear again?
"Oh, the thought has gone through my mind but to be honest, I need too many machines." And she confides: "I'm cooking up some stuff for later. I can't tell you what ... I want to spell it out but the minute I spell it out, it's just going to be a major trend. Everybody will be doing it; it's art. I've got to do it first and then they can all go and do it. If I can get them off the street to do this, it'll bring out the creative side of people who are doing no good."
And is this going to be the thing that makes her famous once more?
"Well this will be global."
Watch this space ...
