KEY POINTS:
Tony Milich means business. The first time I met the managing director of Sabatini was at an intimate fashion show for the higher-end Sabatini White label in the penthouse suite of The Hilton earlier this year. Even during our brief introduction, I could tell he was a man with plenty of business nous, and I could also see the incredible enthusiasm he had for the family run knitwear brand, which launched in the 1950s. A few months later I meet up with him again at the Sabatini workroom, a decidedly less glamorous place than the Hilton penthouse suite.
Based in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill, the home of Sabatini is somewhat at odds with the sexy figure-hugging knit dresses it produces. A large grey concrete building that used to belong to Bendon, Sabatini's head office and factory sits on a busy road next door to a Samoan church. But it's when you open the door that you realise where you really are, with international and local fashion magazines sitting neatly on a coffee table, and stacks of fabric in an adjoining room.
"I just had some people in, and they said to me, 'Don't tell me you're making your dresses here?' and I said 'well, why wouldn't we?"' says Milich, who lives in Herne Bay in a large home that reflects his love of Europe.
Milich's office is large, with a desk heaving with press clippings and lookbooks, and art scattered around the room. Behind him is a massive painting of a summer day at a tranquil beach. He tells me it was a birthday gift from his family, and that the crab in the image represents him, "because I'm a Cancer". Milich also tells the story behind another image, which features a groovy looking girl in a bikini, framed with a rainbow border. The picture is British pop artist Peter Blake's iconic Babe Rainbow. Also hanging in the room is a framed vintage Sabatini knit sweater, and a cabinet with 100-year-old handcrafted pipes. But my favourite is an arty close-up black and white photograph of a younger Milich, looking very suave in a pair of aviator sunglasses.
When he starts talking about the brand's history and success, Milich gets a bit of a glint in his eye and his passion for business and fashion becomes obvious. His most recent coup has been getting Victoria's Secret model (and Orlando Bloom's latest squeeze) Miranda Kerr in one of Sabatini White's dresses, in a recent show for Australian department store David Jones.
"It's been a terrific thing for us, David Jones actually pre-sold all the dresses before they were even delivered. She's also asked us for what we call the `tutu dress'. It's great to have Sabatini worn by her personally."
But I get the feeling that celebrity backing is one of the last things Milich considers truly important. Instead of hype and PR, Milich subscribes to the old school way of fashion, focusing on exports and building solid relationships with people and customers. The Sabatini White label was launched to critical acclaim at New Zealand Fashion Week in 2001, but Milich says the reason the brand stopped doing it was that they decided they had to actually go and personally see their customers and buyers in Europe.
"We realised we couldn't do it from here, we had to go there." A simple concept that seems to be working well for the knitwear brand. Milich says Sabatini's parent company, Sonny Elegant Knitwear (which manufactures different labels for different markets, including Sabatini, Aliza and Sonny) now exports 87 per cent of what it produces. Exporting to Italy, the home of knitwear, is especially extraordinary for Milich. "It's very, very special for us to be selling there, because it's a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle."
Milich's parents, Croatian immigrants Zarko and Sonia Milich, launched the Sonny Elegant Knitwear label in the 1950s, but it wasn't until the younger Milich returned home from London that he decided to join the family business. "When I was a young man I was interested in the business, but you know, you travel around, and do a lot of things. In the end I went to London's Royal College and did a two-year post-graduate course, and that's what cemented me to go into fashion." The Sabatini label launched in 1991 and he held the position of designer until 1994, after which he took over as managing director. It's that blend of creative design experience and business knowledge that makes him seems so insightful.
His business know-how and willingness to embrace the new and fresh kicked into overdrive in 2001, when he launched the Sabatini White label, which concentrates on more expensive pieces that Milich calls their "show time collection". This is the label that sells in Milan, London and New York, so it has to be, as Milich calls it, "really out there".
"I could see that mainstream knitwear really had a short limited life with a lot of things being imported, so I decided if we were going to sustain the business, we needed something that was capable of being exported. Export is the name of the game."
But beyond all Milich's business talk of exports, price points and trade - and he's clearly passionate about it all - is a man just as passionate about art, travel and family. His family plays a big part in the business of course, with his parents, now in their 80s, being "very proud of what we're doing".
In fact, the name Sabatini comes from the name of his parents' favourite restaurant in Rome. Sister Margi Evans-Milich runs Sabatini's Sydney office, daughter Anja is creative director - and the last port of call for each design.
"We try everything on her. She's always like "I love it' or 'I don't like it', and we pay attention to her." Son Antoni was also part of the business, managing the stockroom warehouse, but recently left to do his OE - "I would hope that he would come back and want to join me in the business, but who knows?".
Travel is important to Milich, who visits Europe frequently for his work. He was born in Rome and lived there for seven years, before moving to New Zealand - and he says he still feels at home in the Italian capital.
He even turns the tables and starts asking me about my own plans for a European OE, giving me some stellar advice - "just do it!"
His passion for art is obvious too, with the aforementioned pictures on the walls, and newer pieces waiting to be hung.
"I love art, but I'm running out of space at home - so I've had to start bringing it into the office." It's refreshing to see the creative side behind the businessman.
As he says, "I want to live a creative life, in everything I do."
