New Kids On The Block

Hopetown, designed by Aria Campbell and Ruth Ellison, is a new fashion label set to make a splash.

‘Those generation Y’s, no work ethic, want it all without putting in the hard yards first, soft, I tell you.’ You hear snippets of conversations like this everywhere these days, construction foremen who think the young’uns are soft to corporates incredulous at their assistant’s refusal to do a tea round. Those naysayers obviously haven’t met ambitious young fashion designers Aria Campbell and Ruth Ellison, the names behind new fashion label Hopetown.
The pair met while working as fashion assistants at High Society, the successful New Zealand-based fashion company that designs, manufactures and distributes four fashion labels: Catalyst; Obi; Chocolat and Mosaic.

When the company wanted to test off-shore production they asked their design teams to come up with a concept for a new brand. Underwear, sleepwear, and sportswear were all proposed, but Campbell and Ellison were interested in keeping to the ready-to-wear aesthetic that High Society was already successful with, but as each of the current brands target niches of the plus 35 age group, they saw opportunity to focus a new label at a much younger bracket.
While the management team seemed excited about the idea, in the midst of designing, cutting and marketing the new collections for the current labels, the idea slipped aside. Campbell and Ellison weren’t to be deterred and instead of letting it go, the two spent late nights and weekends designing key looks for a small collection. When they presented their project to management, with its clear direction of the mood of the label, a strong visual concept that ran through the entire collection, and much of the preliminary process done, their bosses, impressed, agreed to develop it into a brand. The collection is called Old Fisherman and His Little Boat. The designers were concerned with creating a character they could visualise rather than an ephemeral concept. The fisherman, with his fitted long johns, practical and masculine image is contrasted with the boat character with its more feminine sails, rigging, panelling and structure.

The clothes – tailored trousers and light dresses – reflect this mix of hard and soft, masculine and feminine, while remaining eminently wearable. The wearability of the clothes comes partially from being within the fold of a large fashion company. With the business acumen of a management team and the expertise of pattern makers and machinists on site, designs can be refined throughout the development of a piece to make them beautiful, practical and economic. But while Campbell and Ellison may have a handy step to lean on, it’s obvious these designers stand on their own.