Calling their fashion brand Flakii — pronounced ‘flaky’ — CEO Bridget Bodie-Healy and creative director Katie Gill have gone for a double meaning.
Flakii honours the magical snowflake, they say, but it’s also important, Bodie-Healy says, "to reclaim some of the words and terms that have been used to marginalise women over the years, such as being flaky, ditzy, dumb or blonde".
"We aim to empower women through sustainable fashion and change."
The duo also saw a gap in the market.
"There’s a lot of wonderful mountain brands out there, but there’s really very little for women to go out and socialise in," Bodie-Healy says.
"We don’t want to always wear big, thick jackets and heavy ski gear and coats and things like that."
They’ve launched with a collection, ‘Paint the Town Red’, comprising a 97% merino reversible maxi dress, 97% merino reversible square neck and roll neck tops, 100% merino beanie and 100% merino headband.
They’ll also be bringing out a skirt.
Bodie-Healy says sustainability’s a critical part of their business.
Their main fabric’s RWS merino wool — certified ‘responsible wool standard’ — and they use paper for their swing tags and packaging.
"We have a partner in India who is a specialist merino wool producer and we have sustainability throughout that channel as well."
Their other partner is a Christchurch-based designer.
Gill says their colours at this stage are black, red, navy and white.
"We love classic styles, so things you can wear for seasons to come that don’t date, but we also look at trends, so our first range has this beautiful red colour which is a trend that is very popular at the moment."
To support women and children in need, they’re donating a ‘safe night’ to Women’s Refuge for every $1000 in sales.
At this stage, they’re only selling online — via flakii.com — but they’re also looking at retailing through local stores.
