New York—Artsy but refined, vintage but not costume. New Zealand native New York fashion designer Rebecca Taylor has made a huge impression on the fashion scene. Her Spring ’09 collection presented at New York’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week on Thursday is not likely to disappoint her celebrity following.
It’s not hard to see why her clothes are favorites with the likes of Jessica Parker, who’s worn some of her ensembles on Sex in the City, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Courtney Love, Kate Winslet, Uma Thurman and Reese Witherspoon, to name a few. Her whimsical designs flavored with hints of a rock-star attitude explain Taylor’s reputation for ‘pretty and soft with claws.’
Taylor says her inspiration comes from memories of growing up in a ‘fairy tale seaside village in New Zealand where her mother indulged her desire for ethereal ballet costumes and anything soft, sparkly, warm and kitten like.’
The New York Fashion Week veteran is better known in NY than in New Zealand. The Taylor label generates an annual turnover of $12 million per year—for a Kiwi chick who arrived in the big apple 11 years ago with NZ$600 in her pocket, that’s not bad at all. Since launching her line in 1999, she’s only missed two NY shows, one of which was scheduled on 9/11, 2001. The following year was too soon to jump back in.
But the road to success has not been easy. Having been ‘sort of kicked out’ of high school, she was quite directionless for a time, doing stints cleaning toilets at the Plaza Hotel and selling makeup at a pharmacy before ending up on unemployment. After studying at the Wellington School of Design through Access, a government sponsored program, her first job was making Viet Cong frog puppet costumes for director Peter Jackson’s grotesque movie Meet the Feebles. She got her foot in the door in New York working for designer Cynthia Rowley for six years.
The Rebecca Taylor collection has now expanded to include clothing, maternity, shoes, handbags, accessories and hosiery and can be found in major department stores and specialty boutiques across the U.S., Europe and Japan. In 2004 Taylor opened her first U.S. flagship store in the heart of Nolita, New York (she’s had one in Toyko since 2000).
In an interview with The Dominion Post, a New Zealand newspaper, Taylor reveals the secret of her destiny with success in the industry, “It was a day-by-day thing. When I first started I had the philosophy, “If anyone can, a Kiwi can. Build it and they will come,” and I think that really helped.”
