New Zealand label Loclaire is crafting timeless womenswear on a made-to-order basis
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FELICIA DUQUE
WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT
“A brand as competent and modern in its morals as in its aesthetics.”
After working in various roles across the international fashion industry, Kiwi-Chinese designer Frances Lowe found herself feeling disillusioned. Living in Shanghai, “the sheer amount of consumption and waste we were exposed to every day was really confronting,” Frances says. “I started to feel really guilty about contributing to an industry that was incredibly harmful to both people and the planet.”
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This prompted Frances and her partner Adi to move back to Auckland, launching their conscious label Loclaire in 2019. With a focus on minimising waste, using natural textiles and educating customers responsibly, the duo created an online collection of womenswear pieces. Eventually, Loclaire moved to a purely made-to-order model – transforming into a “slow fashion brand that truly reflects our community of all shapes and sizes”. Below, Frances tells the story of the label so fair.
Tell us about you. What’s your fashion background?
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I’m a second-generation Kiwi-Chinese, born and bred in Auckland, New Zealand. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved designing and creating – whether it be in art, fashion, music or dance. My mum is very skilled at patchwork, and as I became enamoured with the world of clothes and fashion, she taught me the basics of sewing.
It was very much a journey of self-discovery from here – I actually went on to study architecture at university, but in my spare time I would always be sewing. I would buy tops from The Warehouse and sew extra bits on to decorate them, I unpicked old clothes to see what the pieces looked like apart and how they were put together, and I sewed my friends’ wacky costumes for our dress-up architecture balls.
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My career in fashion started by interning at the much-loved local brand Ruby… I eventually stayed on for six years, working in various roles across the design and production departments. In 2016, my partner Adi and I moved to Shanghai, where I worked as a product developer at H&M. These two very disparate experiences taught me so much about myself, and influenced me heavily in eventually launching Loclaire.
How did the label get started? Talk us through the process and the challenges.
Our move to Shanghai was the lightbulb moment. Not only working at H&M – a fast fashion behemoth – but also just living in Shanghai. It is a city of 26 million, and the sheer amount of consumption and waste we were exposed to every day was really confronting in a way I hadn’t expected. In my work, I started to feel really guilty about contributing to an industry that was incredibly harmful to both people and the planet.
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The more I learnt, the more I felt the urge to change and slow down… so in October 2018, we decided to move back home. At this point I felt like I was at a bit of a crossroads in my career – I either had to step away from the fashion industry completely or create something of my own that I could have complete control over. We decided to do the latter, and so in July 2019, Loclaire was born.
I felt very lucky that I had built up relationships in the local industry from my work pre-Shanghai, so the supply chain side of things was relatively easy to set up. My challenges came in everything else and wearing several hats at once – in business and entrepreneurship, marketing and PR, setting up online and reaching out to stockists. Luckily Adi’s experience is in business, marketing and tech, so we made a good team.
What were you trying to achieve from the project at the time? How has this evolved and what are you trying to communicate through the brand now?
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We started Loclaire with a vision to realise a brand as competent and modern in its morals as in its aesthetics. Although we were driven by strong values – producing small runs in natural and organic fabrics – I still felt in our early days like our purpose was a little conflicted and half-done. An example of this was I remember quite clearly the first time I held a sale – it genuinely hurt a bit, discounting these pieces which had nothing wrong with them, that were designed to be worn for years to come.
I realised we were trying to make our future-forward brand fit into an existing mould of the industry, which in hindsight meant we could never truly reach our full potential or vision. To top it all off, COVID decided to grace us six months in. The 2020 lockdowns forced a slower pace and gave us space to really delve deep into what was most important for us. I decided to step away from the ‘seasonal collection’, and instead, test a pre-order-only run of one of our popular pant styles. This meant that I would take pre-orders up until a cut-off date, and then make them to order afterwards.
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… I remember receiving a message from a first-time customer soon after I launched this – she was so overjoyed by our offering as she… had always struggled to find pants that were long enough for her. This was a bit of an epiphany for me – realising just how much of a positive difference this change could make. We bravely (or naively) decided from that moment on, we would transform Loclaire to be 100 per cent made-to-order – a zero-waste, slow fashion brand that truly reflects our community of all shapes and sizes.
How would you describe Loclaire to someone who’s never seen it before?
Loclaire will make you fall in love with getting dressed again.
What are you most proud of in your work on your brand?
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A particularly proud moment was launching our cost transparency in October 2021, something that is now integral to our brand. Education has always been paramount in bringing our community along with us – I understand this is a different way to shop compared to what people are used to… [whichever] way in which we can communicate the ‘why’ behind what we do is really important in earning trust and understanding.
As a customer, there is so much to be overlooked when buying a piece of clothing… where exactly does your hard-earned money go? Made-to-order advocates for honest pricing. As every piece we make already has a home, we don’t hold excess stock, and therefore don’t need to rely on seasonal sales or the extra markup that buffers this discounting, to clear stock.
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… I came to realise that the only fair way our community could make well-informed purchasing decisions was to show them where every cent was spent. And so, you can now view the full breakdown of costs online across our entire made-to-order offering – from fabric to sewing, to marketing and packaging, as well as our margin, which makes up the final retail price. Our transparency leaves no place to hide – it is the true cost of a slow, locally-made garment. This is just a first step for us, but I think it is such an important conversation to start.
What do you wish you knew when you started?
In our early days, I used to care so much about what people thought of me and Loclaire, to the extent that it was detrimental to my creativity and authenticity. Since then, I have been intentionally working at fostering my own personal confidence, alongside Loclaire’s growth.
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My cultural identity is something that in the past, I have tried to consciously separate or even hide from Loclaire’s identity, but now I see it as our superpower – sitting front and centre of all and any business decisions. Learning to be comfortable and proud of my Chinese heritage… has been really freeing for me, and I believe my creative output has been better off for it too.
Who do you think is most exciting in the Australian/NZ fashion scene right now?
I am currently loving lots of independent and made-to-order labels – Emma Jing, Baobei, Molly Perkinsons, Jess Grindell.
Dream Australian/NZ collaborators?
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I love visualising my dream retail space celebrating local designers and artists – Katie Lockhart would be on interiors, florals by Australian florist Doctor Cooper, art by Billie Culy and Raukura Turei, food at the opening by a local dim sum restaurant, maybe Lucky Fortune or Pearl Garden.
Who is in your wardrobe right now?
Aside from Loclaire, I recently got married and added a couple of very special pieces to my wardrobe to mark the occasion – a pearlescent Simone Rocha cloque minidress for dancing, and a deep red Khaite top to wear to our Chinese banquet dinner. Both pieces I will cherish forever and ever.
How can we buy one of your pieces?
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We open pre-orders at loclaire.com for a few days every month, during which you have time to ask for any sizing and fit advice, request any customisations and place your order.
To streamline our production processes we offer a rotating capsule of styles each month – so if there’s something you have your eye on that isn’t available that month, email us at hello@loclaire.com to go on the wait list for its launch date. Once pre-orders close, I consolidate and start production, and your order is shipped out within four weeks.
Browse the Loclaire collection and find out more here.
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