Luxury Made-to-Measure Label Reine’s Elegant New Collection Is Full of Instant Classics

While there’s nothing wrong with a fashion designer being a key part of their brand’s narrative, Auckland-based Fleur Clarke wants her pieces to speak for themselves.

“I want it to be about the clothes,” she says, simply. She’s standing between two clothing racks in the Herne Bay showroom and studio of her high-end, made-to-measure fashion label, Reine , pulling out samples from the winter 2023 collection.

There are the Garance and Jean Luxe coats – nodding to 1950s glamour, but with a modern sentiment in their minimal lines. “I love anything retro,” says Clarke. “I had quite a boring childhood and got obsessed with movies and movie stars and lost myself in all that design. Weren’t they put together?”

The Nina coat takes its cues from the ’80s. Clarke first started making the style while studying apparel technology and administration at Auckland University of Technology towards the end of that decade. With batwing sleeves and a cocoon-like silhouette that can be worn with pants or just tights, it’s snug – and it might push you a little outside your fashion comfort zone. “I was very alternative in my teens and early twenties, and as I’ve grown up, I’ve changed what I’m wearing – but I still appreciate minimalist, edgy looks.”

After university, in the ’90s, Clarke spent five years crafting couture and made-to-measure garments for New Zealand designer Adrienne Winkelmann’s eponymous label, known for its event wear and power suiting. It’s here Clarke learnt the importance of pattern-making and creating well-fitted and -proportioned clothes. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter what size you are. If your clothes fit you perfectly, you will feel fantastic and look beautiful,” she says.

In the early 2000s, Clarke continued to work as a pattern maker for Kate Sylvester and contracted for other top New Zealand designers.

Eventually, fashion career burnout set in, and Clarke moved into the corporate world – where she would remain for the next 20 years. She had always made her own clothes, and she now found herself designing gilets and shrugs to compete with the office air conditioning, as well as bespoke wedding dresses for close friends.

She hoped to return to fashion and deploy her newly acquired business acumen. When a fire destroyed much of her self-made wardrobe in December 2020, it proved to be a catalyst – Clarke decided to create a new label, with designs that cater for herself and clients with a similar sensibility.

“Everything is designed for me,” she says. And Reine’s ideal customer is, like Clarke, a “cosmopolitan working woman”: she’s social and has lots of interests, and she might have kids. Clarke uses a checklist when she’s designing each piece to ensure it can be worn all day long – from work to events to walking the dog. “[My clients] are looking for things that will take them through their whole life.”

These timeless, trans-seasonal designs require long-lasting fabrics. Clarke works with triacetate (a regenerated wood fibre), cotton and virgin wool. They’re luxurious to the touch, and survive Reine’s wear tests through busy days of pattern making and cutting, as well as many test cycles through the washing machine.

With samples that can only be tried on in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the Reine studio, Clarke and her showroom manager, Amelia Faleafa, personally help customers find the best fit for their wardrobe. These looks don’t just go with the Saint Laurent, Prada and Gucci heels beneath the racks, but trainers, slides and riding boots too.

Reine doesn’t offer patterns and uses colour sparingly. This season, the signature trench and car coats come in a wear-with-anything khaki, a specific colour found after a year of searching that Clarke says “suits pretty much everyone”.

Reine’s customer base has grown as word has gotten out about its high-quality investment pieces, which average around $1500 each.

While the label is growing a strong following around the country, Clarke intends to continue selling directly from the showroom and online store to keep prices attainable (as far as possible in the luxury, New Zealand made-to-measure market).

"I just want people to look and feel great in our clothes,” she says. “I started the business because I have a massive amount of creativity that I need to get out.”

reine.nz