A Dunedin-based UK designer is making New Zealand her new local. Designer Natasha Postill has made an immediate street-level impression in Dunedin.
The British-born talent behind the label Beau has been showcasing her fashion designs in a vacant window on the corner of Frederick and Castle Sts these past several months, telling stories of creativity, enterprise and the seasons.
Only in Dunedin since January, Postill met the building's owner at a networking session and came up with the idea of using the window.
''I didn't have a shop at the time and wanted to shout that I have this lovely little label but didn't really know how to show it.''
While her fashion designs have remained a feature of the window, next to Preens Dry Cleaners, the project has taken on a life of its own.
''It wasn't really even about [the label] in the end. It was just a great opportunity as an artist to just create something each month that was purely visual as an outlet for myself.''
So far there has been a window inspired by the anarchic paint swirls of American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock, another telling the story of a fashion designer during iD Fashion Week, and most recently the arrival of winter.
''At the moment we have a window display that emphasises the wet weather,'' she says, her back to a window that frames this week's torrential downpour.
Postill has pitched up in the South having fallen in love. Her partner works at Dunedin Hospital.
The couple first moved to Tauranga, from the UK, then Auckland - where she worked for Helen Cherry and Bettie Munroe - before heading further south.
In the UK, Postill graduated with a first-class honours degree in fashion, in Bournemouth on the south coast, and showed her graduate collection at London Fashion Week.
She soon launched Beau Couture, the label that has been abbreviated for its New Zealand incarnation.
''Beau is basically a fashion label that does daywear, more the occasion market really, beautiful garments.''
And bridal gowns too.
The philosophy behind the label remains the same, with an emphasis on local, the social value of work and lasting relationships.
In Bournemouth, that meant partnering with a textile factory that supported people with disabilities into work.
''It was almost like a community project discovering what skills they had and working with them and retraining the locals and creating a small product that we could bring to market.''
In New Zealand, it has been about building relationships with those who sew the clothes, suppliers and outlets.
''I still work locally but I work locally within New Zealand.
''I have tried to be quite sustainable and ethical in the way I work and that filters through all elements of the business: socially, the team I work with, but also making choices of fabrics.
''In Europe I used a lot of linen, because that was a fabric that grew there a lot and could be dyed sustainably, and since moving to New Zealand, merino wool.
"It is a beautiful product that I knew about but hadn't really used a lot but as it is a locally produced product it is so good to use. I don't think I realised the full benefits of it until I reached the South Island.''
While in-house - which in this case really does mean what it says: Postill works from a home studio - the label is just Postill, who designs, makes the patterns and creates samples, she talks of the label as ''we'', including all who contribute.
''I personally know those people I engage with, even if it is a factory in Auckland I will have built up that relationship with them before working with them.
''I do feel like we are a big family really.''
Postill is working on producing her summer collection at the moment, while designing for the following winter.
''But we do find that we often create pieces within seasons as we are inspired, as cash flow allows.
''That's what's great about being small, you can be adaptive and flexible to the current market.''
