Bent over an industrial sewing machine, Caitlin Crisp glances up and beams as I enter her studio. Dressed head-to-toe in black, Caitlin is sitting surrounded by a sea of billowing cream fabric. She quickly finishes sewing a straight hem on the curtains that will divide the production, workroom and dispatch areas from the showroom of the Caitlin Crisp Studio. We sit among the material for a chat about her eponymous label and her move to Uptown.

It’s a cool space and Caitlin is effusive about her new premises in an older building in Uptown. She loves the space because of its versatility; it doubles as a photo studio, rented by the hour, with ever-changing light cascading through its corner location windows, and she loves that people can walk past and peer into her showroom. She finds she is often waving to someone she knows.

Caitlin is open and warm, with a strikingly fresh outlook. At 25, her enthusiasm for everything combines with an unstoppable attitude. She sprang to prominence through New Zealand’s version of reality TV show Project Runway and a New Zealand Fashion Week graduate show that followed. This profile spurred a business doing one-off designs and garments for private clients.

She says she always knew she wanted to be a fashion designer, but with hard-working successful parents in the medical industry, she followed the science route at high school and did well. She was equally talented in arts and creative subjects; she says things could have gone either way.

Her parents were waiting for her to choose and finally, one day, she did. She called her parents and said “I’m doing it, I’m going into fashion”. Fashion school in Christchurch followed, where Caitlin learned pattern-making and construction. A year later, in 2019, she launched her own label.

“Looking back, fashion was definitely the right choice, but an odd choice. You have the option of a safe job or something that is really unknown. Usually most people just leave sewing or arts as a hobby. That was something I always toyed with and struggled with, but it was definitely the right decision to pursue it as a career.”

Business growth has been organic, from doing one-offs to producing more when she could afford it. She worked two jobs and kept the fashion on the side until the beginning of this year, when she took the plunge into full-time. Now with two staff, a raft of contractors and top fashion retailers as her clients, she has moved her studio into Uptown’s St Benedicts Street.

It comes with huge responsibility, and even though Caitlin doesn’t display a skerrick of self doubt, she does admit at times it is scary.

“Your name, your person and your character is at stake, but I think in turn that does make you work so much harder. When you’re working for yourself, you have to make it work, it’s a ‘have to’ thing. You’re constantly thinking about the business. Especially with Covid and everything, you just never really know what’s around the corner.”

She has an unrestrained love for her business and says she loves that she is living a purposeful life. “It’s so cool seeing people wear my clothes and creating something that can be shared with people.”

Her inspiration comes from clothes that are everywhere and thinking about her ultimate version of a garment, because “then you are looking at things with a different eye”.

“Everyone loves white blouses and I know what my ultimate version of that is – I like frills, so I am going to make it frilly,” she says. “I find fabric a huge inspiration in itself, so when I am designing, I will often go to the fabric stores and see what is available.” Caitlin’s trademark could be described as feminine using natural fibres. “I love frills, ruffles, gathers and using cottons, linens and silk.”

Caitlin says industry and shopping behaviours are changing. “You don’t necessarily need to be on the main street or in a shopping

hub. You can create a more flexible working space. That’s what I love about this area; we are going to open our showroom, but it’s not going to be open for full-time retail.”

Caitlin oozes a certain confidence that may come from making that critical decision a couple of years ago. “Both my parents were always supportive, but they just waited for that phone call where I said ‘yep, I’m going to do it’ and they were full steam ahead helping me. My mum’s an incredible businesswoman.” And she must be proud of Caitlin, because not only is she a talented designer and businesswoman, she is absolutely unstoppable.