Inspiring for her own design aesthetic as well as her willingness to – and joy in – promote the work of other fashion names, Vicki Taylor is the sort of woman that we love to acknowledge as a local.
Just under two years ago she opened The Shelter, a shared contemporary space of like-minded, design-led brands on Mackelvie Street in Ponsonby that has seen a steady stream of loyal taylor customers and excited newbies passing through its doors. It was a dream come true for the designer and businesswoman, who was always keen to help spread the word about the next generation of talent bubbling up in the industry. “I love the fact that I can discover and talk to young, up and coming designers and help bring their brand to market,” she says, “and it gives them a presence in a beautiful store. You can’t gloss over the fact that rents are going up, foot traffic is decreasing and people are short on time, so the idea of The Shelter was to give customers an amazing retail experience under one roof and introduce them to something new and exciting.”
Past and present brands under their roof include Danish designer Barbara Gongini, highly coveted MM6 by Maison Margiela of Paris, German designer Bernhard Wilhelm, Finnish designer Daniel Palillo, Canadian jewellery and footwear designer Arielle de Pinto, and local brands such as Children of Vision, Jimmy D, Lela Jacobs, Monday's Child from Christchurch and Vicki’s own brand, taylor. The Shelter also features an on-site café EAT, a carefully curated selection of local and international homewares and natural beauty collections. They represent a vast number of countries and each brand complements the next, not only through aesthetic and design values but also via their ethical and sustainable practices.
She says it is “so much fun taking emerging brands and taking them to a whole new market, and now we’ve taken over management of our café EAT we can do the same with food too”. She prides herself on an even spread when it comes to purchase price across the beautiful store as well, offering everything from premium European label Margiela to $15 tea towels and bespoke beauty products.
When we catch up for tea at the aforementioned EAT I ask her how she chooses which new labels get added to The Shelter roster, and how does she find them? “Vicki just goes shopping!” laughs The Shelter and taylor events manager, Victoria Cooper-Smith, and indeed it is Vicki’s frequent trips to Europe and Japan that allow her to both find new design discoveries as well as source high-quality, leading-edge fabrics from some of the best mills in the world for her own label. “We have so many talented young designers in New Zealand and we know about them because they are at our back door,” says Vicki. “When I travel I can find those same kind of designers all around the world and that is what really excites me – people who are so passionate about what they do and staying true to their vision. They are also still manufacturing in their home countries and can truly be called artisans.”
She says that she personally gravitates towards an Italian style of dressing, in the beautifully cut, slightly austere sense of the word as opposed to over accessorised Versace. She also likes the smaller, cooler producers, saying why would she go only for big brands when they are readily available online and on the streets of Auckland? “I want to offer collections that people will see, try on and fall in love with for their style and authenticity,” Vicki says, “and I guess you could say that is the key philosophy behind what we buy.”
She also deals directly with designers as opposed to agents and says that is one of the most satisfying parts of what she does when she’s on the road. “It’s a lovely little network that we have built up over the past year and a bit and the way that the young designers are trained internationally is so different to the way we are designed here,” she concludes. “These young people are business savvy and eager to succeed, and the fact that I can help in some way is just an amazing place to be.” (HELENE RAVLICH)
THE SHELTER, 78 Mackelvie Street, T: 09 376 6544, www.theshelter.co.nz