Capsule x NESCAFÉ GOLD
Kelly Coe is the co-founder and designer of Augustine, the New Zealand clothing brand that has developed a huge and enthusiastic community due to its vibrant clothing and warm, friendly brand. In a rare collaboration, Augustine has teamed up with NESCAFÉ Gold to create a colourful range of limited-edition collector’s tins, using three of Augustine’s signature prints.
Capsule talks to Kelly about her typical day, how she makes time for creativity and the little tricks that help freshen her perspective, both when she’s running the business with her husband, Nathan, and at home raising three girls, Indiana, 12, Demi, 10, and Havie, 5.
What’s your typical morning routine?
I get up at about 6am, sometimes later, it all depends on when my eldest has to be at school – my husband, Nathan takes her but I get her ready and out the door. Then the other two are up, so I get them fed and ready for school after which I get a moment to myself to get ready for the day ahead. I check my phone and my emails, see what’s happened on the ‘gram – I can sometimes be very bad at doing that as soon as I wake up [laughs]
I always turn the news on and watch the news every morning – which is sometimes good and sometimes bad, it can be a sad start to the day if the news is depressing. At 8.30am, I drop the girls at school, which is tricky at the moment because Havie hates drop-offs and there are usually tears. So, we have a little plan with the teacher and then I head to the office for 9am.
What does your average work day involve?
It’s so varied, every day. We’ve got an open plan office, so there’s always someone coming and asking me 1000 questions [laughs]. I have no thinking time – if I need to get work done that requires a lot of concentration, I’ll do it at home in the evening.
‘I probably get changed between 10-40 times a day. I get changed a LOT.’
We have a fun, vibrant and colourful office – and that’s how we like it. It’s very collaborative and busy and chaotic. A couple of times a week, there’s a photoshoot downstairs. I usually do some stories on the ‘gram, so I’m putting on outfits for that. The outfit I start my day in is never the outfit I end my day in, and most days I do some fit testing, so I probably get changed between 10-40 times a day. I get changed a LOT [laughs].
I go on the ‘gram and talk to our customers, which is a really important part of the day – to have that connection and engagement with our customers. If I go a couple of days without going on camera, I start to feel like I haven’t spoken to them for a while. I’m showing them new outfits, talking about upcoming events.
I try to spend an hour a day designing – just to get a bit of fresh perspective and creativity each day. I get boxes and boxes of fabric swatches arriving and I find my creativity is a lot better on the days I have fabric to look at. Usually I design fabric first – once I’ve got the fabrics in front of me, I touch it, feel it, visualise where I can see someone wearing that fabric.
‘I try to spend an hour a day designing – just to get a bit of fresh perspective and creativity each day.’
Then I’m organising photoshoots and VIP nights in the stores – there’s always a fashion show or an event we’re organising. I’ll have a meeting or two – we have a Monday team meeting with everyone. I don’t have in-person meetings any more – I think that’s a Covid thing – but I’ll talk to staff in the stores, etc. And then I work on my emails – I never, ever have an empty inbox!
You’ve just done an Augustine x NESCAFÉ Gold collab of these vibrant, colourful coffee tins in three of Augustine’s signature prints. Why did this fit so well with your brand?
I rarely do collaborations. I’m not an influencer, I hardly ever work with other brands – the only other people we work with are the Silver Ferns. And I never want to be a brand that’s known for sponsorship, so it had to be a really well-known, reputable brand and the right opportunity to express our creative brand. We were really excited to work with the NESCAFÉ Gold team and the fact that they wanted to bring colour to their tins, to bring colour to people’s mornings… it was perfect.
Looking at colour really is such a mood shift – that’s how I feel when I get up, shower and put my outfit on. It’s like putting on your armour, putting on who you want to be that day. You can create whoever you want to be – if I’m going to wear a long maxi dress, or jeans and a top and heels, or activewear, because I’m coaching after school.
‘Clothing is like putting on your armour, putting on who you want to be that day.’
There are so many different versions of me, depending on what I put on but nine times out of 10, it’ll be colourful. And I think it’s exciting that the NESCAFÉ Gold team wanted to bring colour into people’s morning routine to help them see things from a fresh perspective, right from their morning coffee.
Where do you find your creative inspiration from, when it comes designing?
I get a lot of it from the fabric, I get a lot of it from watching TV shows, from seeing women out in the world. I used to get a lot from travelling but that hasn’t been possible in the last few years! I’ll watch a show and be like ‘that’s an amazing sleeve, that’s a great neckline.’ But it all begins with the fabric.
What about the second shift, when you get home?
I leave work around 3.30-4pm – and the older girls always have something on, like Demi has netball today and I coach her netball team. Then we get home at 5.30pm, unless they have a game on. Any game they play, Nathan and I never miss. We don’t go to their practices – we have an afternoon nanny who does the school pick up and sports drop offs – but we always make sure we’re at every single game.
But if there’s no game, we’ll get home and I’ll try and go for a run – that’s my exercise time AND my thinking time. I’ve been doing a lot of home workouts because the weather has been so bad and I’m already someone who doesn’t want to go for a run when it’s cold [laughs].
Then I get the kids dinner and then do any homework the kids have to do or they quite often have more sport later at night. Once they go to bed, Nathan and I then have dinner and I immediately go to bed and watch television. I am NOT a late-night person.
On a Friday night or Saturday night, we’re always out – seeing friends for dinner or having friends around. And our weekends are just full of sport – those are our family outing, we’re at every game, together.
With Augustine, you have such a passionate and committed community who love the brand. Why do you think that has happened?
First of all, because no-one else was ever offering that – no-one else ever created a community or a place to feel comfortable and accepted, within a clothing label. A lot of these women might have moved to a new town in their adult life, they no longer live in the same place they grew up, so they might not have met that many people.
‘I’ve never been driven by the money, I’m driven by the community we’ve created and the women we’re uplifting.’
Whereas they’ve come to these Augustine events and done our photoshoots, and they’ve found friends who have got like-minded interests. It’s become a part of their life and they’ve met great people through it. It was really important to us that when you walk into one of our shops, you feel invited and accepted and included – it’s a community.
When we have our events, it’s the same thing – they feel welcome and then people hear about it, and they want to be part of it. We’ve been doing these ‘friend shoots’ for eight years now and there are people who have become best friends from them. It’s the #1 thing for me – I’ve never been driven by the money, I’m driven by the community we’ve created and the women we’re uplifting. We have fashion shows that we do, where the customers become the models.
We just did one in Christchurch, where we had 300 people and 10 customers who did the catwalk for us, instead of getting models, and the crowd went crazy and was cheering them on. These are women who would never have thought about being on a catwalk, and they had 300 people cheering their names.
Why is colour so important to you, to brighten up your day?
Colour is so important – it can help your state of mind, it can boost your mood. It can help you feel so much brighter and happier wearing colour and also, you get so many more compliments when you wear colour! It all ties in together. I think if people aren’t into colour, they should give it a try – it’s uplifting and it makes you feel happier about the world. If I ever put on black, people are like ‘what on EARTH is going on??’
If you look down at your outfit and you notice a cute frill, it makes you feel good. If you put on a bright, colourful outfit in the morning, you nail your day. Same with coffee! Start with a good cup of coffee in the morning to shift your perspective and you’re good to go for the day. And why wouldn’t you want a beautiful, colourful tin in your pantry?!
The NESCAFÉ Gold range of collector’s edition tins are available in all major supermarket for a limited time. RRP $10.39
