Sylvester, the New Zealand fashion label run by designer Kate Sylvester\u2019s sons, has announced it\u2019s closing down amid a challenging economic climate.<\/p>\n
\n In an Instagram post on Wednesday morning, the label said new arrivals of its final summer collection will continue to drop until Christmas, before it closes permanently next
\n February.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sad to announce that after giving it our all, we have decided to wind up the Sylvester brand,\u201d the brand said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so proud of all that we have created, but the hard reality is that the economic climate is so much tougher than we anticipated. We knew trying to build a business would be tough, but just trying to keep afloat in this current climate has been too intensely stressful for our entire team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ike Conway, the label\u2019s head of brand and son of Sylvester, told the Herald the business feels \u201csad, but the kind messages have been really heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said trading conditions have been \u201cso tough\u201d since Sylvester started. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t got any easier and we don\u2019t see an uplift coming. Our priority is looking after our team and our suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sylvester first launched in 2004 as a casual sister label to Kate Sylvester. It was relaunched by the family\u2019s sons Ike, Tom, and Cosmo Conway last April.<\/p>\n
The brand said Sylvester, one of New Zealand\u2019s most prominent fashion designers, and partner Wayne Conway, who is also the brand\u2019s creative director, had made it clear the business had to pay for itself. <\/p>\n
New Zealand designers continue to struggle in the fashion industry amid difficult economic conditions.<\/p>\n
Sylvester closed her self-named label, which ran for 31 years, in March 2025.<\/p>\n
In April, prominent fashion designer Wynn Crawshaw announced he was closing his label Wynn Hamlyn after 11 years in business.<\/p>\n
Last May, fashion designer Tanya Carlson announced the closure of her label after operating for more than two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sylvester, the New Zealand fashion label run by designer Kate Sylvester\u2019s sons, has announced it\u2019s closing down amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[534,696,4463,138,23159,4442,651,6789,28145,6097,10668,1438,302,2517,15405,111,139,69,10707,269587,269588,61,80],"class_list":["post-548887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-amid","tag-announced","tag-brand","tag-business","tag-challenging","tag-climate","tag-close","tag-closing","tag-designer","tag-down","tag-economic","tag-fashion","tag-its","tag-kate","tag-label","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sons","tag-sylvester","tag-sylvesters","tag-to","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}