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A Love Letter To Miss Crabb From a Former Shop Girl

The cult New Zealand fashion brand is closing its doors.
Farewell to Cult New Zealand Label Miss Crabb
Image supplied by the author. 

Only very few successful creatives have emerged unscathed from the vortex of New Zealand’s treacherous tall poppy syndrome. Lord knows international sensation Lorde didn’t make it and Victoria’s Secret model Georgia Fowler is likely teetering on the edge, but designers like Georgia Alice and Deadly Ponies, Ruby and Karen Walker, despite—with regards to the latter two—their questionable ethical ratings, remain at the forefront of the contemporary Kiwi girl's fashion consciousness: the recipients of unwavering devotion and regular investment. Miss Crabb, the eponymous label of Kristine Crabb, is another such brand, and the one with perhaps the most enduring fanbase.

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I know, because I was once there. Despite working another job at the time, my year-long retail role at Miss Crabb was not one I took lightly. This was not only because each of my colleagues were intimidatingly beautiful, style savvy and superior sellers. Finding new ways to drape each garment or tying a sash—far beyond even Kristine’s imagination—became something of a competitive sport, and unveiling the versatility of each style to customers was executed with the finesse of a magic trick. We lamented the wildly high resell prices of Crabb on designer recycle sites, which were taking sales away from us. The pervasive popularity of “Crabb,” as it has become affectionately known, essentially reached such heights that Kristine’s primary competitor was… herself.

Case in point: the ‘Summertime’ dress. If you were to ask me Levis’ most famous denim style or the name of Chanel’s iconic tweed blazer, I couldn’t tell you. But everybody, everybody knows the Summertime. The multi-way silk wrap dress inspired high-street knock-offs and became a regular feature in ‘starter packs’ (the Internet in-joke that involves photoshopping together the token items of a particular type of person) targeting the typical New Zealand woman’s 21st birthday party sartorial choices. This dress, created by a mother from rural Waikato, became a viral meme and still continues sell-out.

None of this should come as a surprise. This is the brand that brought you capes that could also serve as throw blankets, the first reemergence of the slip dress, ball and wedding attire that was passed on, borrowed, rented and re-worn, and a guerrilla fashion-week show that saw models walk off the City Link bus and strut up cigarette-strewn K Road in entirely sustainable designs.

The Ponsonby store was not just a mother-daughter go-to, but became a refuge for us, the shop girls. I could talk body image with Maeve (thank you for looking at my boobs that one time), cinema with Selina, boys with Emily, wellness with Fran and mental health with Annabel—conversations that have irrevocably changed my outlook on womanhood. My manager became more confidante than boss and every time Kristine stopped by, she would brim with generosity and gratitude as if we were doing her the favour, not the other way around. And the clothes. There’s a reason why even after I moved to New York and began work at a US magazine I insisted on continuing to cover Crabb. I wanted to do right by Kristine and Kiwi fashion landscape… but I also knew I needed a piece from the new collection.

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Kristine Crabb. Image supplied.

Now Kristine Crabb has announced she is halting production, and shutting down her now-famous flagship in March 2019. If you listen closely, you can hear the wails of 20-somethings in the grips of wedding season, or the hyperventilating teen girls who know the demand of that ‘Dreams Top Rock’ dress they had their eye on is about to skyrocket stratospherically. They’re not the only ones who are shaking. All of us have been somehow touched, metaphorically and literally, by that slippery silk. But the era of Miss Crabb will never be forgotten, and no matter what this very, very tall poppy does next, Kristine Crabb’s legacy will forever be readily accessible—albeit, at twice the market value—under the Crabb tab on those resale sites.

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