NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Lifestyle

<i>Elsewhere:</i> Selling through the label

15 Dec, 2000 05:51 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Many years ago a mate and I decided to launch our own designer label. Not a fashion or cosmetics line, just a label.

Our plan - hardly original, we would concede - was to design an impressive eye-catching logo then to plaster it on various products, starting with the ubiquitous T-shirt.

We
had been encouraged by the number of people who walked around like peripatetic posters, covered in ads for their sponsor's product or wanting to be seen as a member of some exclusive, fashionably hip club.

Buying by label has become an increasing and obvious trend over the past two decades. These days, however, most of the formerly high-end designer labels are far from exclusive products.

Recognising that there's not enough money at the top, they shifted down the market and into suburban shopping malls.

But if the mall-kids are prepared to buy a $180 T-shirt with your name on it, then why be precious?

My mate and I - like Versace, Gucci and others - weren't going to be fussy.

Music has often been sold by label, too, record label. And that's not as dumb as it might first sound.

Sometimes the record label confers a quality or style.

For about five years in the mid-60s you could hardly go wrong if you bought a record with "Motown" inscribed in the middle.

Jazz listeners knew the Blue Note label inferred a particular kind of music and sound quality, and in the 70s the ECM label out of Germany was a brand identifiable by its austere, intellectual music and pristine production.

The music on Flying Nun may not always have conformed to the media shorthand of "the Dunedin sound" but there was an ethic at work which most people understood intuitively after they'd heard a few albums.

My designer record label discovery of the year has been Irma out of Italy, distributed here by Music World who usually bring you unfashionable reissues and cheap "best of" type products which fill the dump bins.

But the Irma albums, in often wildly colourful gatefold covers, traverse a lot of hip and fashionable territory, from retro lounge-jazz and funky trip-hop to cool cocktail-hour bossa and kitschy grooves.

Among the most-played items round my way this year have been the self-titled trip-hop ambient album by Cybophonia, the "volume quattro"Chill Out Cafe compilation and Black Mighty Orchestra's To the Sky.

Milan's Irma label has sprung more than 100 discs and, after a while, names like Montefiori Cocktail, SLOK, Ohm Guru and Voo Doo Phunk trip lightly off the tongue.

A new batch of Irma releases covers some of the hip end for a cool summer.

The Ninfadelica album, pulled together by DJ Ninja, is a lively, humorous and slightly bent collection of B-grade movie soundtracks of the 50s and 60s.

So there are dramatic Bond-like pieces, woozy lounge jazz, buzzy guitar pop-kitsch (Men and Clubs could be the 3Ds and cries out for some equally dumb lyrics) and even a 68 Hugo Montenegro track.

Ash - apparently taken from a 69 film about a young heroin addict in love with two women but who dies before he can resolve the situation - is just weird, as you might expect.

This is fascinating stuff from what must be equally odd period-piece movies.

Irma carries a far swag of new bossa material (best band name, Bossa Nostra) but they all come with a slight hip-hop skew and sometimes amusing titles.

On the Sister Bossa Vol 2 collection are the tracks Rhodes to Bahia and Nylito's Way (by NYC DJ Jaymz Nylon).

This is a slow swinging affair which includes Black Mighty Orchestra's slinky "ba-da-da-dum" and lightly percussive Rua Escondida, Montefiori Cocktail's schmoozy take on the classic Carlos Jobim One Note Samba and Don Carlos' Sueno de Bahia.

This is best served with drinks which have their own umbrellas.

Belladonna's Midnight House is a nice'n'low-pulse selection of lengthy and leisurely house grooves with usefully hypnotic electronica effects.

It's certainly a midnight mood, but when the maraccas and snare drums kick in there's something here for mid-morning stressless listening, too.

The chief advantage of these Italian albums - and this is important in fashionable circles - is that they seem obscure to most people.

Irma is like that - they release the sort of albums you could build hip radio programmes around. You would just need, though, to give it a label.

The T-shirt would doubtless follow.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

New Zealand

King’s Birthday 2025: What you need to know for the long weekend

29 May 07:00 PM
Premium
Lifestyle

'Really nasty substance': Why no type of alcohol is safe

29 May 06:00 AM
Lifestyle

Motat's Te Puawānanga wins top international award

Sponsored: Cosy up to colour all year

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

King’s Birthday 2025: What you need to know for the long weekend

King’s Birthday 2025: What you need to know for the long weekend

29 May 07:00 PM

Expect cooler weather, cafe surcharges and extra police on the roads.

Premium
'Really nasty substance': Why no type of alcohol is safe

'Really nasty substance': Why no type of alcohol is safe

29 May 06:00 AM
Motat's Te Puawānanga wins top international award

Motat's Te Puawānanga wins top international award

Premium
Toxic positivity: Why 'stay positive' can harm mental health

Toxic positivity: Why 'stay positive' can harm mental health

29 May 12:00 AM
Sponsored: Into the woods - the new biophilic design
sponsored

Sponsored: Into the woods - the new biophilic design

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP