Precious Collaborative

How do you want to wear your clothes?
How do you want to present yourself?
Who do you want to be today?
What do you want to communicate to the people around you?
A few good items in your wardrobe; a few funky accessories; a bit of imagination; who will you be today?!

There are many ways to wear a Coat, especially such a beautiful, unique, expensive Coat.
Beautiful clothing speaks for itself, wear it quietly or with serious attitude...
This is Precious Collaborative's Lake Wanaka Trench Coat by the wonderful Liz Mitchell, MNZM.
A beautifully storied garment, hand-felted, depicting the mountains and lake of Wanaka, the home of Precious Collaborative.
The fabric is from McLean & Co's selection of tweedish weaves, 13 different designs, made from fibre grown in Canterbury, woven in the North Island and nearly discarded a decade ago before it was rescued by Sue and Rod McLean & Co. - Hand woven textiles, then stashed away for something special. Precious Collaborative was the perfect project.
The McLean & Co fabric is worked with a beautiful woven wool from Interweave in Auckland and lined with Shibori dyed silk - and I'm putting AI to the test again:
'Shibori dye is an ancient Japanese manual resist-dyeing technique—traditionally done with indigo—that involves folding, twisting, binding, or clamping cloth to create intricate patterns.'

Wonderful re-vitalisation....

A Precious Slaney Skirt on-stage at Wastebusters Wanaka Refashion 2025.
This woollen tweed skirt, lined with Tencel, uses natural shell buttons rather than a zipper to increase the mulch-ability of the garment.
The main fabric is a herringbone weave with a denim backdrop and multicoloured flecks or 'neps' .... and look what AI came up with when I asked for a definition of neps? 10 outa 10 this time to AI!!!:
'Neps in tweed are small, dense, tangled clumps of short wool fibers or contrasting colored flecks woven directly into the yarn to create a speckled, multi-colored texture. They are the defining feature of traditional Donegal Tweed, mimicking natural countryside elements like heather and moss.'
Beautiful.....

Rob from Wanaka, a big supporter of Precious, has taken his pants all over the world:
"When I first tried the trousers on I knew they were right, so different from putting on a pair of jeans.
When I eventually acquired a pair I wore them every day for a month.
They were so comfortable, and having passed the initial intensive testing phase, I bought a second pair to take on holiday.
They were perfect up Mt Iron and at a jazz bar in London.
Looking forward to many more years of holidays with my Trousers..."

Jean in Christchurch is passionate about New Zealand made:
"I am most grateful to have this opportunity to have beautiful clothing made in New Zealand.
I hope this can be a continuing trend, to have NZ made clothes more readily available."
Thank you Jean, we totally agree with the NZ made sentiment here at Precious and I hope you've gotten lots of wear out of your pants this winter