Global Eye
Its conception was during a chance meeting during a ski trip to Aspen and its key decision-makers count just three. Yet in just four years it has attracted the attention of international media and acquired a membership spanning the globe. Nicole Currin-Birch reports on a club with a difference.
Last year was a busy one for cult New Zealand label Lonely Hearts Club.
Not only did the trio of Helene Morris, Aimee McFarlane and Steve Ferguson relocate from their Wellington base to Auckland, they also opened a successful retail store and increased their wholesale accounts by a significant percentage.
Their real coup though occurred during Air New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland last September. Although they didn't stage an official on schedule show, they scored one of the most successful outcomes by landing two high profile accounts in the United States.
"We held an impromptu installation at the venue and managed to get some great people along to it," says Morris. "I think it was a really good, interesting way to show people what we are about and we had the buyers from White Trash Charms in Los Angeles and I Heart in New York come in and order the whole collection on the spot. We were just thrilled and really happy that they immediately understood what our label is about."
In fact the buyer from New York was so impressed she has offered to be the label's agent in the United States.
Morris credits interest in the label to the trio's ability to think outside the square.
"I think we are just really different from a lot of what is out there. We are very graphics driven and we design those ourselves and we just have quite an unusual approach to our collections and create slightly different pieces."
Different is certainly the word. Two seasons ago the label caught the attention of the fashion press when it sent out models wearing oversized sweatshirts and leggings emblazoned with an eye-catching French fry print. For winter 2007 the collection is entitled Moon Base and is themed around the clothing people would wear if they lived on the moon and had no gravity. The result is a great mix of voluminous pieces including a mini trench dress made from more than three metres of fabric. "We always try to inject a little bit of humour into what we are doing," Morris says.
Lonely Hearts Club has grown steadily since its inception just over four years ago.
After a chance meeting between avid snowboarders Morris and McFarlane when both were working in Aspen, the two quickly became firm friends and started up the label once they arrived back in New Zealand.
Then it was simply a collection of slightly quirky accessories made from retro styled prints, but after several seasons of plugging away and the opening of their first store in Wellington - Good as Gold - they soon attracted attention.
By the time they had arrived in Auckland, together with Morris's partner Ferguson, Lonely Hearts Club was considered one of the top labels to watch by the local fashion crowd.
Their store Myhart, which along with their own label stocks Australian designers Lover, Josh Goot, Michelle Robinson, Gail Sorrinda, Claude Maus, Youth World and Tina Kalivas, was swiftly voted the city's top fashion store by an influential magazine.
In Australia Lonely Hearts Club has nine stockists including Billie & Rose in Perth, Violent Green in Brisbane, Coterie in Sydney and Buddy Love in Melbourne, and Morris says she has been surprised by the interest from some of the smaller cities.
"Perth is going really well for us which is wonderful and we have They are hoping to have a presence at Australian Fashion Week in Sydney this year and to follow that up with a full runway show in 2008.
"We are just taking things one step at a time and one opportunity at a time but we are still moving forward. We have had some interest from Fred Segals in Los Angeles and from a couple of stores in Singapore so we are waiting to see what happens there. Once we begin exporting to the Northern Hemisphere in a big way it means that we will have to make quite a few changes in the way we design and the fabric weights we use and the timings of our collections so we don't want to rush it. We have to get it right."
In the meantime, the trio is extending the range into more accessories and has introduced a jewellery line.
"Our heads are spinning with ideas, we just have to make sure we keep a handle on them, but we are having a lot of fun at the same time."