Our story

Hello!

I just wanted to quickly say, Thanks for being here! Because you know what?

We wouldn't be able to be doing what we Love with out your support! Every Follow on our social media, Likes, Sharing our story and purchase doesn't go unnoticed and we are always so so grateful!

~ You may want to pour yourself a cuppa for this one ~

Enjoy reading our story ~

A Mother with years of experience in the fashion and design industry and a Daughter with Skills, passion and Love for fashion Collaborate together. We are on a mission to use our combined skills. Creating garments to make You feel Confident, Comfortable and Special! We produce limited edition slow fashion. We are now also stockiest of Like minded brands who strive to produce quality products that are also kind on our Environment. Using natural fibre materials where possible. We love being able to share stories of Businesses with similar backgrounds of our own. How special!?

Hi there and welcome on our journey. I'm Shania - Named after Shania Twain but not actually pronounced the same, but that's a story for another day! I'm Shar-nia the Daughter of Collaborate Fashion NZ. My wonderful Mum, Mandy grew up with Creative role models all around her. Her Dad "the handy man" was always building or fixing everything around the house himself, once he even made his own beaded curtain, I'll leave that to your imagination. Mandy grew up wearing clothing hand made by her Mum, A skill that has been passed down for generations. Nana was constantly teaching Mum how to knit and then introduced her to her first sewing machine. Mum began with learning how to sew pretty outfits for her beloved dolls and since then she has never looked back. Mum has been in the Fashion industry for over 30 years and within this time after studying worked as a machinist in factories in Christchurch and Nelson. She then began her own children's wear Label "Popula Childrenswear" starting off selling at the Nelson flea markets.

Over the years Mums love and skills creating clothing has grown well above what she had ever thought and she is grateful for the opportunities and support she has had to achieve her dreams. Mum has been fortunate to have four Daughters to utilise her skills, dressing them in her clothing. For one of her Daughters the love for Fashion was passed down, thats where I come in. Like my mum I have been lucky to experience growing up with family members creating many different items around me. From being Mums model for her childrens wear to having my own "business" with a friend ,Sam named "Shazam creations" attending markets beside popula childrenswear, w made scrunchies and children cooking aprons! Throughout school I enjoyed sewing classes and entered garments in the Hokonui Fashion and design awards ,twice. 2020 was a crazy year for many people, for Me it was meant to be the year to travel. All of my flights booked and ready to go on the trip of a life time, but unfortunately like many others this year was not the year to travel. Although I was devastated, this gave me the push I needed. It has opened up an opportunity in mine and my mums life to embark on a journey together. We actually initially began working together making cotton Re-usable face masks - A VERY popular product during the Covid pandemic in 2020. We realised during this time that we could really work as a team with our combined skills!

With some determination, Amazing support from our family, friends and after the lockdowns were over and we had some sort of normality back in our lives, we were able to start Collaborate Fashion NZ, . I have always admired my Mum, she has been my role model my whole life and now we get to encourage and work with each other every day!

- Starting out in a bedroom at Mums house in Gore, We began creating. Although the space was small and limited us to certain possibilities we made it work and grew month after month. We will be forever grateful for the local support we received!

- 6 months after this we moved into our own studio space, also located at Mums new house, now in Riversdale. We Sold our products, all made by us, on our online store and attended large events including markets and fetes. We also hosted a few of our own events at local Cafes and facilities raising Awareness and funds for different organisations. During this time in our studio we also introduced a beautiful Collaborate Mini collection, Creating garments for children ages 0-14.

On the 30th of March 2022 , almost 2 years after we began this exciting journey, we opened our new store!!!

Collaborate Fashion NZ. Located in the beautiful Mandeville, Southland, NZ.

~ First comes the planning and design process. Sometimes we let the fabric inspire us , but sometimes we have our design and work hard to find a fabric that will complete the look we desire. We then create a pattern - a very long initial process as we have to make a pattern for each size. Cutting the garments out one at a time comes next! we do this in our Riversdale Studio space. Next we take these 10 minutes down the road to our store Collaborate in Mandeville where each garment is lovingly made by us in our store. Into our Boutique store they go ready to find a new home for years to come.

Alongside our in house label we stock beautiful quality Womenswear, Childrenswear, accessories and some homewares by incredible brands from NZ and Australia. We are so honoured our Boutique has been carefully chosen to represent these brands, their stories and products.

We are always happy to help here at collaborate! Mum and I are both very down to earth people and love interacting with our customers. Every now and again we are also very lucky to have Kerry pop in store to help! A wonderful lady inside and out who is a dear friend to us both and is an absolute super star in store.

There is never have a dull moment in Collaborate, Our friends at Miss cocoas Cafe are always there for support and make us Laugh on the daily, We are one big happy Family, with our arms open for anyone who steps through our doors,

Hope to see you sometime soon,

Mandy and Shania x

Mandy - The Mother