Saint Fabiola fabulousness

Last Fri­day we had a love­ly time at the open­ing of St Fabi­o­la on Lom­bard Street (you may have seen us tweet­ing about the pies from Pick­le and Pie, because, you know, pri­or­i­ties), so this week, we caught up with the own­er Kirsten for a chat over email.

What’s your back­ground before the shop?

I’m an Embroi­dery Artist work­ing in dig­i­tal embroi­dery. Recent­ly I’ve been mak­ing embroi­dered art­works and cos­tumes for film and work­ing part-time teach­ing at Massey.  My first real job was work­ing for an Art Deal­er (Mar­shall Seifert) , I worked in Har­rods and Har­vey Nicholls in Lon­don and part-owned a snow­board shop in Queen­stown. This is a cul­mi­na­tion of my love of art and retail. My chil­dren are grow­ing up and I need­ed anoth­er out­let for my work and a new chal­lenge so St Fabi­o­la the bou­tique was cre­at­ed.

Where does the name St Fabi­o­la come from?

While study­ing saints and reli­gious embroi­dery for my Mas­ters degree, I dis­cov­ered the St Fabi­o­la exhi­bi­tion by Fran­cis Alys. I loved her name and her strik­ing image. St Fabi­o­la is the Patron Saint of divorced peo­ple and I have recent­ly been on that jour­ney. I’m remar­ried now though to Bruce Turn­er.

Pick five words to describe the shop

Expe­ri­en­tial, inspi­ra­tional, beau­ti­ful, relax­ing, friend­ly.

How do you choose what to stock?

St Fabi­o­la is also the pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny for fash­ion label Hail­wood so we stock the full Hail­wood range designed by my friend Adri­an Hail­wood. It is a fun-lov­ing, age­less, and well-priced brand that hasn’t been avail­able in full in Welling­ton before. I’m also rep­re­sent­ing Fiona Par­d­ing­ton in con­junc­tion with Stark­white gallery and St Fabi­o­la embroi­deries. There is also beau­ti­ful jew­ellery and shoes by Revie. When choos­ing stock I’m think­ing of fun, sophis­ti­cat­ed Welling­ton women.

What do you have planned for the next year or so of the shop?

I’m so excit­ed about the next year. We have anoth­er Par­d­ing­ton exi­hi­bi­tion open­ing in Sep­tem­ber. We will be hold­ing spe­cial St Fabi­o­la after hours class­es and such as Ike­bana, beer and cheese tast­ing and Tarot for begin­ners. I’m plan­ning on stock­ing a selec­tion of books, more beau­ty and plants espe­cial­ly rare orchids.

Final­ly, what’s anoth­er retail place in Welling­ton that you love?

I love Caugh­ley.