Kingston Fashion Designer Opens Her Doors To Public
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Fashion designer Jane Sutherland has finally opened her workshop and studio to the public in Kingston after 18 years in business.
Established in 2004, her label started with jewellery and eventually became her inroad into the fashion industry, where she has been making a name for herself using fabric and metalwork harmoniously.
Her second love is animals and Jane is about to launch a small collection online, where 10% of the profits will go to Furever Homes – the non-profit organisation in Invercargill.
Born in the South, Jane moved to Kingston in 1999 and stocks her range of fashion and jewellery throughout boutiques both nationwide and internationally.
Throughout the pandemic she had to make the difficult decision to no longer sell wholesale, but concentrate on her online store direct to the customer instead.
And after many conversations over the years with customers, she has now also decided to open to the public.
“I make jewellery from there, these are available to view and purchase alongside one-off garments, limited edition pieces and a wonderful sales rack,” she said.
There are no specific days or times, just when Jane is working from her studio, but if anyone was coming through from Southland as a group she would open by arrangement.
The launch for her new project involving Furever Homes is set for Sunday March 20 – “this is something I have always wanted to do. A fashion show was in the pipeline two or three years ago, but with this falling through I have since decided to take the online approach with clothing and other designs, something that I hope to grow overtime,” she said.
There will be a small collection of garments including t/shirts, sweatshirts, the perfect coat to walk your dog in, amongst other bits and bobs.
Jane loves all things design, including architecture, interior design and photography, and recently met a New Zealand artist online, living in Los Angeles.
They have ended up swapping their goods – clothing and jewellery for art and she also discovered they both have a love of animals.
Jane once owned a rescue dog called Bryan (but that’s another story), and her artist friend sketched her a picture of the two of them – despite never having seen either of them.
The picture has ended up on some t-shirts that she is selling for the Furever Homes launch.
Those that purchase either clothing or a gift will receive a short story Jane wrote of her experience owning a rescue dog – ‘The life of Bryan.’
She loves volunteer work and there is plenty of it in a small town of 300 – “at the end of the day if I can help the animals in some small way then I will be happy, and I am sure so will they.”
Visit: janesutherland.co.nz