Winter Drop!

I’ve now been calling Wellington home for the past two and a half years and I have absolutely loved my short time living here. Yesterday, however, was one of the best days I’ve had here in a while and a huge milestone for Stella Claire. As it rained and ‘winded’ here in the capital, myself and ten of my gorgeous friends got together with our photographer, Ben and videographer, Tara, to venture to a local studio where we laughed our way through the day shooting for my winter drop.

There was a moment shortly after we started shooting where I was literally jumping up and down overwhelmed with so many emotions - I was in my happy place, with my friends, doing what I love the most. After four months of coming up with the ideas, the patterns, sourcing the material (ethical of course), grading, cutting and then the first samples being delivered, we could now finally start to get the range together for you to enjoy. I have to give a big shout out to my Auckland team, especially Jennine (on cutting), Fay and Robyn (sampling production) and Ange (a.k.a. Mum) for herding these cats from our home in Grey Lynn. 

Keeping it local is at my heart. Sure, it might be a harder way to make this sort of thing happen, but at its core, this is what Stella Claire is all about. I’m really proud to be able to run this process thoughtfully with the help of such an incredible team - it wouldn’t be possible without their support and I’m over the moon with how this launch has turned out. 

The common theme from my shoot and new range is “luxe” and if I do say so myself, this range of hoodies, crews, trackpants and shorts are just that - absolutely perfect for hunkering down over winter. I wish you could reach through your screens and feel the quality of the products - I promise you’ll be blown away when you get your hands on them! 

As we know, each of my products are named after someone. First, we had the ‘Stella’ and ‘Claire’ pants, then the ‘Angie’ hat named after my mum, followed by my most recent product the ‘Indi’ skirt which was named after my sister and best friend. My new products are again named after some very special people to me. The shorts are named ‘Alex’, after my Dad who spends tireless amounts of time helping out with Stella Claire while I’m in Wellington. Shout out to Dad for everything he does for me. Along with the shorts, I also have the hoodie and track-pants which are named after my two best friends: Madi and Georgia. I’ve known these girls since I was little and funnily enough they’re twins - so naming a tracksuit after them made perfect sense. They did have to flip a coin though to decide who would be named after the hoodie!

Here are some pics from behind the scenes of the shoot taken by my lovely friend, Mon. Thank you to all of my friends who so generously gave up their Sunday to help out (I owe them one). I also owe a huge thanks to Ben Cushman, our photographer who captured this collection so perfectly. It was a huge amount of fun and represents a huge step up in terms of what Stella Claire is now able to offer. The trip just keeps getting faster… and better! 

Thank you all for joining me on this journey and allowing me to do a happy dance everyday. I hope you enjoy this new launch as much as I enjoyed creating it! 

Always remember to be kind :)

Stella x