Theft threatens fashion label

Vicki Reid, in her Papamoa workshop yesterday, wants anyone with any knowledge of the clothes to come forward. Picture / Alan Gibson

An up-and-coming designer fears her success will be short-lived after $40,000 worth of clothes from her first collection were stolen from a courier van in Auckland this week.

Vicki Reid is desperate to get back the 128 distinctive dresses, shirts, jackets and capes that she and her design partner, Nicola Karam, have spent the past year working on for their new label, Oyl.

Mrs Reid, a mother of two small children who works from home, was devastated when three boxes filled with garments for the label's inaugural summer 2006-07 collection were stolen on Monday.

"It's a whole year's worth of work stolen," she said yesterday. "That's the really gut-wrenching part of it. It's not so much the money."

The theft happened after a New Zealand Post courier van picked up four boxes for Oyl from an Otahuhu factory making the clothes for delivery to Mrs Reid's house in Papamoa, near Tauranga.

The driver had stopped for another consignment in Otahuhu, locking the van using an automatic device that allows the engine to keep running. Walking away, he heard sounds and turned to find thieves making off with the van.

The driver gave chase on foot and then flagged down a passing motorist, but they lost sight of the vehicle before finding it a short time later, down a dead-end street in Mangere Bridge, with three of Mrs Reid's boxes and other items missing.

The garments were to have been sent to stores such as Smith & Caughey's in Auckland and Designer Clothing Gallery in Wellington today.

They had been priced to retail for between $200 and $900 but Mrs Reid and police fear they will be sold for considerably less.

Constable Mark Farrell, of Papamoa, said: "It's a possibility someone will try and fob them off at markets or other stores."

The garments were uninsured and represented about 20 per cent of Oyl's first collection, the other 80 per cent having already been delivered.

Mrs Reid, 36, said the loss of the final shipment could doom the fledgling brand, which picked up five new stockists - including one from Australia - at Fashion Week last month.

She had not informed all stockists of the loss yet, saying telling them a courier van had been stolen days before a promised shipment was "like phoning up work and saying, 'I'm sick'."

Police have spoken to three people about the theft of the courier van and recovered some of the stolen property but not the three Oyl boxes.

A spokesman for New Zealand Post, which owns Courier Post, said it was not clear how the thieves had broken into the van but security procedures would be reviewed.

Mrs Reid said her clothes were easily recognisable and anyone with any knowledge of them should contact police immediately.


Stolen items

* Cotton/linen capes in grey and cream with chains hand-sewn on the shoulder.

* Sleeveless dresses with low-cut crossover fronts and high elastic waists, in muted grey and pink crumpled "cotton metal" fabric.

* Shirts with large, low collars and tie waists.

* Cropped jackets with tucks in the sleeve and body, and a fabric tie at the base.

* All garments have Oyl labels sewn on the inside.