Subj : Kate Sylvester shutting up shop after 31 years: 'Our honour and privil
To   : All
From : News Person
Date : Wed Apr 10 2024 11:41 am

Kiwi designer Kate Sylvester is shutting up shop after 31 years of business.

In a statement this morning, Sylvester and partner and co-founder Wayne
Conway said: "We will sell our final-ever Summer 24 collection,
business-as-usual, and will wind our business up in mid 2025.

"We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved. Thank you to our customers
for embracing our vision and making us the iconic NZ brand we have become.

"It has been our honour and privilege to create clothes worn and loved by
multiple generations of women both everyday and for the most important
moments in their lives.

"We acknowledge and thank all our customers who have supported us all these
years and most of all we thank our super-amazing team at Kate Sylvester. In
the stores, behind the scenes, in everything that we do, it has been the
people we have worked with who have kept us on this journey.

"We believe in the talent of the new generation of NZ designers, it's your
time to shine now."

Sylvester was not available to be interviewed.

A number of high profile Kiwis have worn her pieces over the years, including
former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern.

When being sworn in as prime minister in 2017, Ardern wore a red and blue
floral Kate Sylvester dress. "So proud of our new Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern sworn in today and looking beautiful in Kate Sylvester," the label
said at the time.

Kate Sylvester has three stores in Auckland, two in Christchurch and one in
Wellington.

"We started this company with literally nothing more than wild faith in each
other and a dream to create clothes that people would wear and love," they
added.

"Since the day we opened the doors on that first store in Kitchener Street we
have worked incredibly hard for three decades. And now we need to move on to
a new chapter in our lives."

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