Cupboard love: Trelise Cooper

By FIONA HAWTIN

Trelise Cooper has a dog in her wardrobe. Daisy, the cavalier King Charles spaniel, leaves her bed on the wardrobe floor and rushes out to greet her mother, the wardrobe mistress, the moment she throws open the doors.

"It's a bit like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I think it's because she misses me when I'm away," says Cooper.

The designer has commandeered the extra guest bedroom as her dressing room. Although the wardrobe runs the length of the room, it can't cope with its contents. Cooper calls it an eclectic, chaotic mess. Indeed, a heaving rail broke under the strain of holding some of her 250-odd garments - and that's just counting those on hangers. Given the volume, much of the overflow is on a movable rack outside the built-in wardrobe. Finding the room to hang something, even on the rack, is a constant battle.

"My wardrobe needs a really good [clean out]. I haven't had one for about a year now. It's like a handbag, you know when you get your handbag cleaned out you think better. I tend to give it to my sisters and friends and a lot to charity."

The room, which does a plausible imitation as a fourth Trelise Cooper outlet in Auckland, is not usually like this.

"I wish I was one of those people who collect but I actually like clarity. I'm not a hoarder. I'm a huge cleaner-upper. I just haven't had the time."

Aside from the odd piece of Yohji Yamamoto and Dries van Noten (the black skirt with metal embroidery at $3000 is her most expensive item), most clothing is from Cooper's own label.

"There's a real expectation that I wear my own clothes, so generally I do."

Much of it is from the last summer of peasant gear. Together, the pretty colours, textures and prints make dressing tempting. While Trelise Cooper clothes have the reputation of being full-on colourful girly treats, there is a lot of black on her racks. Today she is all in black including the jacket which, at six seasons old, is one of her oldest pieces.

Even so, black is not about pared-down, simple lines. Her clothes are busy, although she reckons she can dress someone with a fondness for classic lines in her label. "You just need to look for them," she says.

"When I went on a ministerial tour with Helen Clark I wore a business suit to a meeting and met my agent in Australia afterwards. He said, 'It's not you'."

If she has time, she'll have a play, pulling out pieces that catch her eye and trying to wear them in unexpected ways. The heap she sometimes leaves on the ironing board is testimony to experimentation.

"I have these housekeeping fairies that come in when I'm at work and clean up. They're used to my mess."

There are two favourites - both are coats. The black is simplicity itself until you get to the back, which features hand-knotted tapestry flowers. Then, there is this summer's pink silk duster coat with beautiful lotus-flower buttons she bought from a man who lives in the backblocks in China.

When it comes to shoes, Cooper can satisfy her desire for other labels. And she does - the shoe shelves run from floor to ceiling. She pulls out Junya Watanabe's men's-look, distressed-leather pair.

"They're like an old tramp's pair of shoes."

Then there are the comfy flat Clone lace-ups that are Ali Barber-meets-upholstery-fabric, and the Gary Castle's heels, with their pink ribbon corset effect on the under side of the shoe. And the three pairs of Vivienne Westwood platform wedge sandals waiting to be worn this summer.

Unlike the mistakes she makes with clothes, which she simply takes back to her shops, the ones with shoes are costly. The elegant high Prada court shoes, at $900, have never been worn. At the time they seemed like a good idea.

"I was having a fantasy," she says.

Yet, with all these shoes and clothes, she often wonders what to wear.

"You know how plumbers' taps never work and their drains are always blocked? Well, I'm a bit like that. I always end up wearing the same things and always feel like I've got nothing to wear. It's only when I've got an event to go to that I'll go on a raid through the workroom and stores."

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