taylor

taylor is a New Zealand womenswear label founded by Vicki Taylor, whose commercial training at Suzanne Gregory preceded the launch of her independent practice. After leaving the company in late 1998, Taylor developed the first range privately and opened a 35-square-metre boutique on Jervois Road in Ponsonby, Auckland, in March 1999. The direct-retail model gave her unusual control over fit, production quantities and customer response from the beginning, while imported Italian and Japanese textiles, New Zealand manufacture and a disciplined approach to cut established the label’s material foundations.

Over the following decades, taylor grew through its own boutiques without relinquishing founder-led creative control. The business expanded into a wider design and retail network with The Shelter, opened by Vicki and Mark Taylor in Ponsonby in 2014, and Symetria, the separate Vicki Taylor-designed brand introduced for Northern Hemisphere wholesale in 2018. The main label remains centred on seasonal womenswear, architectural tailoring and small-scale production, with recent collections including Lacuna Winter 2026 and Somni Spring 2026 alongside stores in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

taylor’s design language is built from fabric, proportion and the possibilities of construction. Vicki Taylor frequently works with asymmetric lines, transformable garments, elongated layers and controlled volumes, giving practical womenswear an architectural tension without sacrificing movement or ease. Limited Italian and Japanese textiles, New Zealand merino and other distinctive fabrications often determine the cut itself: weight, drape and surface become structural tools, not finishing touches.

The same discipline extends to the way the clothes are made. taylor has maintained a network of New Zealand pattern-makers, cutters, sample machinists and specialist outworkers, supporting short production runs, recuts and close control of fit. Where specialised processes have required offshore manufacture, the historical by taylor label made that distinction visible. Commissioned artwork, including Rebekah Farr’s paintings translated into seasonal prints, adds another layer to the label’s material vocabulary, while The Shelter extends Taylor’s eye for proportion, texture and editing from the garment into the retail environment.