Wellington fashion designer Annabelle Wilson talks about her new line and her earliest fashion memories.
Annabelle Wilson was four years old when she defiantly created her first fashion masterpiece, despite the fact she was supposed to be in bed.
It's been a couple of decades since her triumphant reveal of the neon-pink party dress with roses from the garden sellotaped onto it, and Wilson has now set her sights a bit higher.
The Wellington fashion designer, 30, has "lofty" dreams.
She hopes her clothing brand, Wilson Trollope, will one day be global, but for now she's focusing on the next big step in her career journey: opening her first permanent store.
The store will open on Wellington's Victoria Street next month, a move which Wilson said was "really scary", but that felt like "the right next step".
Wellington fashion designer Annabelle Wilson is opening her first permanent Wilson Trollope store next month. Photo/Melissa Nightingale
Wilson, a Kiwi success story, grew up in a family that had a history of making clothes.
"I just always loved clothes. When I was growing up, my whole family was sort of into clothes, making clothes, going shopping."
Her earliest fashion memory is of that day when she was four years old, and her parents were holding a dinner party. Wilson was supposed to be in bed, but instead she went and pulled together her own outfit for the party.
Both her grandmothers were dressmakers and taught her how to sew, while her great grandfather on her mother's side was a tailor, and her grandfather on the other side had his own business around knitting and jumpers.
Wilson initially avoided going down the fashion path for her career - "you know when you love your hobby but you don't want to ruin it?" - instead studying history.
When she booked herself into a fashion course she was still in denial.
"You know when you're just really not ready to admit it?"
The course, around starting your own label and business, was run out of the world-famous Central Saint Martins school in London, which has brought out designers such as Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.
Unlike many in the fashion industry, Wilson has never worked for another designer. Instead, she launched straight into making her own brand after doing the course in 2011. Her first line was brought out in 2013.
This season's line will be displayed in her new store. Les Parisiennes is inspired by the fashions during the occupation of Paris during World War II, and how the women were able to maintain their "innate senses of fashion to sustain their own wellbeing".
Wilson was fascinated by the small ways the women of Paris adapted to their radically-changed lives.
"It was just really actually about how they would stay true to themselves in all the little ways that they could."
One example was how women, who were unable to care for their hair properly and go to the hairdressers due to an electricity and metal shortage, would instead wrap their unkempt locks in turbans for a "chic and elegant" solution.
One of her favourite pieces from the collection is a floral jacket, because it reminds her of that time, as well as of her grandmothers, who the label is named after.
"From a young age I was always inspired by my grandmothers and mother who encouraged me in my quest to become a fashion designer with my own label. Sadly, my grandmothers have passed away but my mother is still very much part of my business, helping me every step of the way."
The Wilson Trollope store officially opens on September 7 in a special evening celebration.
