Precious Clothing Collection
A desire to make beautiful, affordable and sustainable clothing is the driving force behind Claire O’Connell’s ambitious Wānaka based project Precious Collaborative.
“ My goals are to slow things down, go back to basics and create timeless pieces with an affordable price tag that can be kept, worn and treasured.”
Claire launched her business last year after 12 years spent home schooling her children. She had earlier trained as an industrial designer before retraining as a pattern maker.
“My motivation is to make clothing that hero’s natural, sustainable fabrics to combat the fast fashion cycle,” she says. “People who can afford high-quality clothing have lots of choice whereas those with less money often get stuck in the fast fashion loop that churns out low quality, low price garments using synthetic materials that invariably end up in the landfill.”
Claire began with various design ideas for the Precious Collaborative range but on discovering that the clothing would be expensive to produce decided to subsidise production costs by designing and selling exclusive designer garments.
“I contacted New Zealand fashion designer Liz Mitchell MNZM to invite her to be part of this project and create a Precious Collection Coat. Her design aesthetic and love of wool and natural fibres matched my ethos and she understood my vision and came on board immediately.”
“Liz made two beautiful bespoke garments – the Lake Wānaka coat for women and the Fold Landscape jacket for men that were both auctioned at the Precious Collection launch in December 2024 with the men’s coat selling for $10,000.”
“We can now take more orders for the designer coats with 30 per cent of the sale profits going into our ready-to-wear collection which will enable up to 20 everyday people to buy from the range.”
The first production run of the Precious Collaborative ready-to-wear range made from tweed and hemp is underway and will be available for purchase online.
“This new range consists of a pinafore, men’s and women’s pants, a skirt made from a strong wool blend and a hemp shirt,” says Claire. “We feel like we are charting new territory in sustainable fashion and I can’t wait to see people wearing and experiencing the unique feel good clothing.”
