World celebrates 21 years in the fashion business and its ongoing plans to keep breaking barriers.
When you've written the book, collected the Queen's Birthday honours, done the outrageously clever fashion shows and parties, accepted the museum retrospective, had the paddies or given some of the freshest quotes (you choose which) in the press, it is hard to imagine you have much more to say about
life in the pond that is New Zealand fashion.
Which is why it is surprising that two hours can fly by with Denise L'Estrange-Corbet over tea and sandwiches in the glamour of The Langham hotel's tea rooms, and another couple of hours in the shops and workrooms with Francis Hooper and designer Benny Castles as the trio looks back over World's 21 years as the enfants terribles (or enfants savants, perhaps) of New Zealand fashion.
"No, we didn't have any big ambitions. I was having a baby and we had no money and Francis came home one day and said he'd taken a lease on High St. It was so different 21 years ago - as young designers we were able to start our own label and our own store. It was a 9.3 square metre shop [that cost] $100 a week. Not in a million years did we think we'd be sitting talking about World at 21 - we had no ambition past paying the rent each week. That fear kept us going," swears L'Estrange-Corbet.
Despite the chain of 10 stores, the clients in Europe (Russia has been one of their biggest markets for the past five years), Asia and the United States, that fear has stayed with the pair today, working to keep them grounded. Both work seven days a week on the business; they laugh at the notion that fashion is about swanning about from launch party to overseas showing to perfume house. They are clued-up retailers of the old school of "management by walking about", insisting their designers still work in the stores to stay connected to customers and hear their feedback, directly. They also make the tea, clean the toilets if necessary and nurture their family of over 30 staff. A rare break for Hooper means time on an aeroplane (he is a bit of a plane spotter, L'Estrange-Corbet laughs), for L'Estrange-Corbet it is curling up with a book for an afternoon.
But that doesn't mean that world domination is not part of the plan. Hooper adores the way sophisticated luxury brands completely get the importance of creativity, uncurtailed.
"The French understand luxury and fashion and that it can make more money than drugs or arms. It's not about over-consumption or pleasing yourself in a lazy way. Its life blood is a sophisticated customer." As you listen to him talk, you can hear where the World view of their own brand - and customers - has its genesis.
"I don't see this as a family business that will run for a couple of decades and then run down. I see it as New Zealand's first global luxury brand. It'll break the barriers. We're doing it our way - in a very Chinese or European way, but in 50 or 100 years I'll be proven right. New Zealand could be an incredibly big land of luxury - the best raw ingredients, the best pieces. One of our merino wool dresses in Selfridges can return as much as one bale of raw wool to New Zealand," he says.
While firmly Kiwi, it helps that both had their grounding in London, working for brands such as Browns (L'Estrange-Corbet), Rei Kawakubo and John Galliano (Hooper). "I grew up in Hong Kong, I lived that luxury life around the Hilton and the colony, where it was all about money," says Hooper. "I can't help but infuse that aesthetic into what we do now. But it's not about mainstream, it's about creative, colourful, trying to make it better. Our job as designers is to lead the customer, not follow, to take [them] somewhere new and unexpected. You've got to engage people, make them feel sexy and wonderful for the day."
Again and again, say the Worlds, you won't find them doing what they loathe in other designers: pick up "samples" from overseas and have them copied or do "the look" of the season. Sometimes that means they are ahead of the curve and people don't get it. Hooper reckons the look he and long-time collaborator Brent Lawler put together for the 2008 look he was still seeing in Paris shows in 2010.
"Our generation has become quite dishonest copiers. I think there are only three other brands in this country that actually do what they want to do," he says. He blames the commercial pressures on magazine editors and stylists to pick up "the look" from international magazines. He doesn't buy into gifts and Fashion Week reviews that focus on the goodie bag, bemoans both the dearth of experience in the fashion press, and the lack of risk-taking with new photographers, stylists or writers.
L'Estrange-Corbet is happy to admit she says what she thinks (Hooper puts it down to her Englishness, he taps into his Chinese politeness). She admits that a needling from a former boss of Hooper's when they first opened ("is this it?") spurred her to prove that one day World would become the bigger brand (it has) - but both put that down to sheer gritty hard work.
"You have to have stamina, to get up every morning to do the same thing, regardless of the size of the overdraft. You can't just go 'oh it's so hard' and give up and close down. Yeah it's hard, seven days a week. There are times that we could have done something else, but what is the point of giving up," says L'Estrange-Corbet.
So what has kept them going when a raft of equally daring names - Pussyfooting, Svelte, Monsoon, Chrissi R, Blooms - from the mid- and late-80s are no longer around? Again and again, the pair, and designer Benny Castles come back to the unusually close relationship they have with their customers.
"It's our personal relationship with the customers. We know their names and a lot of our customers have become our friends, we grew up with them," says L'Estrange-Corbet. But World followers are not just Auckland art school luvvies. Heather Richardson has travelled from her Waikato country town to shop at the World stores in Auckland for seven years, revelling as much in the theatre as the clothes.
"When my daughter took me in, I was thinking of the fashion shows and they're all way out, they don't have stuff for me. But there's lots of wearable stuff. It is a wardrobe that actually functions well, things fit, you can wear four seasons' looks together. I was in Paris last year and I just about travelled with World exclusively," says Richardson.
"You go into the store and the people are so good. We play dress-ups," she says. "Their champagne evenings with customers, all [of us] interact so well together, you know you'll get on."
It's a similar story from the Burkhart family - Cathy, Trevor and daughters Charlotte and Victoria. Blenheim-based lobster fisherman and exporter Trevor met the "charismatic free spirit" Hooper early on and became a fan, nagging him to make menswear that would fit his fiftysomething body. He now wears the perfectly fitting jackets when he travels. The fellow-businessman in him admires the way the company pays attention to its customers, its focus on New Zealand-made ("We share a similar background in business. It's really hard to be New Zealand-made in this climate, it's a major for us to keep that expertise alive.").
The family connections run deep - Victoria sported a custom World dress to the Oscars earlier this year (she worked on the movie District 9) and younger Charlotte now supplies her jewellery, L.S.D. (Little Sister Designs), to World stores.
Again and again, the words intelligence and dressing the brain creep in. "They are all interesting intelligent people, you can have interesting conversations - not just about fashion. That invites interest, doesn't it?" says Richardson.
"It's a personality brand, it talks to your brain," says Castles. "If you like the ideas you'll buy into it. [We say] 'We love it, do you share our passion?' That can cross the cultural divide: the Russians love lovely things, but they get the big ideas too."
People who work with World are chosen for their personality - their fit with the World brand - and their skills are grown by the company. "We call ourselves a factory of ideas and experiments, and we mean it," declares Castles.
Concludes Hooper:"World understands that we are a very eccentric brand, that we please ourselves first and that's the very best you can be. We want to take you somewhere else, raise your level of consciousness to a better place."
Win the Viva VIP Out of this World Fashion Experience
Viva is delighted to have two tickets to the exclusive World "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" Autumn/Winter 2011 fashion show to be held at 4.30pm on Wednesday September 22 at The Langham, Auckland.
The winner will also receive VIP access to the Shiseido Pamper Lounge at the hotel's Chuan Spa Haven on the afternoon before the show and luxurious accommodation in a suite at the five-star Langham that night (with complimentary valet car parking overnight).
You will also receive two complimentary pre-dinner cocktails at The Winery and dinner for two at Barolo, The Langham's smart-dining northern Italian restaurant, to the value of $250. The next morning you can indulge in two one-hour Chuan Spa harmony massages to help recover from the rigours of being a fashionista. Plus, you will receive a $500 World voucher and in-store consultation to make sure you have the perfect outfit.
To go in the draw, simply write your name, address and phone number on the back of an envelope and send it to World VIP Competition, Viva, NZ Herald, PO Box 3290, Auckland. Entries close September 15. The winner will be notified by phone.
* The World spring/summer 2011 fashion show "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria" takes place in The Great Room at The Langham, Auckland, at 7pm on September 22. Tickets: $75 per person or $750 for tables of 10.
The evening includes complimentary drinks and canapes during the fashion show and a personal welcome by Francis Hooper of World. To book, email: tlakl.world@langhamhotels.com or ph (09) 300 2809.
Make a night of it after and take up The Langham's special package offer including: a complimentary upgrade to an Executive Room, full buffet breakfast for two in SBF Brasserie, a bottle of methode traditionelle, valet parking for one car, and use of the Chuan Spa wellbeing facilities including the herbal steam room, sauna, jacuzzi and heated infinity swimming pool.
From $239 per room. To book, ph (09) 300 2868.
