Celebrating 35 years in the rag trade, Caroline Sills presence online and in store has seen her spread to five new locations across the country. Editor Trudi Brewer spent a morning in her seaside Auckland home with daughter Toni Sills to find her exquisite style and a cracking sense of humour is what has kept her at the top of her game.
Images Keryn Sweeney
For luxury knitwear, stylish loungewear, the most exquisite lamp or a beautifully potted hydrangea, Sills + Co is the place to purchase all of the above. In fact from divine cashmere to accessories and homewares almost anything a chic woman needs to dress her home and wardrobe fills the shelves of this lifestyle brands new stores. Founder Caroline Sills and her daughters Toni (pictured) and Christina (who is currently on maternity leave) have created retail havens across the country. This dynamic duo share their career highs, best fashion and beauty buys from their gorgeous seaside family home.
Sills + Co in Herne Bay and Wellington
CAREER
How long has Sills + Co been in business?
Caroline: Our first Sills + Co store opened five years ago and has expanded to Herne Bay, Devonport, Hamilton, Wellington and more recently Christchurch. While the Caroline Sills label has been going strong for over 35 years, within that time our other labels Sills and ISAAC + LULU have also launched.
How has business changed over the years?
Caroline: The retail landscape is continuously changing, especially in the last five years with social media influencers and online shopping. We have always been predominantly wholesalers but have had to add retail stores to our business model to stay competitive in the fickle world of fashion. Today we are much more in touch with our customers needs and expectations, as well as what our wholesale customer's want.
What brands do you design?
Caroline: Our core three clothing labels are’ Caroline Sills,' diffusion lifestyle label ‘Sills’ and little sister ‘ISAAC + LULU.' These are all designed under the watchful eye of head designer Ange Todd who has been doing an amazing job with us for the last six years.
Where do you get your design inspiration?
Caroline: Everywhere – from following trends to what the team wants to wear. Our main inspiration comes from friends, customers, travel and what's happening online.
Caroline with daughter Toni at the entrance to her stunning family home.
What’s it like working as a mother and daughter team?
Caroline: We work well together as we have our different strengths and core responsibilities, which complement our working relationship. Only a mother and daughter can be truly honest with each other, at times we can get too honest, but there is always a mutual respect. This is the foundation of any successful relationship.
Toni: I have learned so much working with her over the years. She always speaks her mind and is passionate about her vision and what she believes in. I am still amazed how she can go into someone's home and rearrange the furniture to create a complete transformation by using what is already there. Even coming into my house, she can't help herself, even it it's moving the couch a few inches off the wall or rearranging the plants.
What do you love most about your career?
Caroline: The diversity of the job and the fantastic people we work with that make this company what it is today.
What are the career highs to date?
Caroline: The opening of our fifth store in Merivale, Christchurch last month – the response was beyond our expectations and we felt proud of how far we have come and who we are as a company.
Why, with the move to online shopping have you invested in opening retails stores?
Caroline: For our customers and product offering online is an amazing research tool, however, the majority still prefer the in-store experience. It's feeling the product, having A+ service and being inspired by new ideas of how to dress and decorate their homes. The addition of homewares and house plants in our Sills + Co stores curated by our Herne Bay manager Julie Miller, has brought that X factor to the shopping experience for our customers.
HOME
Caroline's open Fale-style living room.
How would you describe your home?
Caroline: My expensive tent or Fale – one big room on one level, with all the doors open to the sea and the sun pouring in.
What do you love about it?
Caroline: I like the way it accommodates my edited collection of antiques and predominantly Italian furniture, which I've collected over the years. I continue to appreciate them today as much as I did when I first bought them years ago.
Colour and texture combining in decor is your skill, share your best tip?
Caroline: Like clothing, less is more.
Where did you look for inspiration when renovating?
Caroline: There were restrictions on what I could do from the council for the heritage area we live in, and the space we had. These factors were the starting point. I wanted to live in a green goldfish bowl so that my exterior was hedged for privacy as it was a small site and very open to the street. I knew what I wanted and this would be a long-term project where we would live for a long time. The house feels relaxed and the design is simple, I have used the same colour palette throughout.
Caroline and Toni at home with Spanish water dog named Monolo and Griffin named Monty.
What makes a great interior?
Caroline: Scale.
What is your favourite room and why?
Caroline: Our house is one big room opening to the sea on the front and garden at the back – we have a South-North aspect, so it's a home for all seasons.
What would you never compromise on?
Caroline: Getting the space right.
What’s the best interior advice you’ve picked up?
Caroline: Don’t rush into things.
What are your most treasured possessions?
Caroline: Our pets. A Spanish water dog named Monolo and a Griffin called Monty. Our Cockotoo named Bertie, who spends his days sitting in the Pohutukawa tree at the front of our property calling out to passers-by.
Caroline's light-filled living area with collectables from her travels. Bertie the Cockatoo in the Pohutukawa tree at the front of the property.
FASHION
Who is your fashion icon?
Caroline: Dries Van Noten.
Toni: Olivia Palermo who rarely gets it wrong.
Who are your favourite local and international fashion designers?
Caroline: Dries Van Noten, Ann Demulmeister, Sophie D’hoore, Acne and Comme des garcons.
Toni: Stella McCartney, Victoria Beckham, Helen Cherry and Kathryn Wilson.
What handbag will you carry this summer?
Caroline: My Jil Sander tote.
Toni: Isaac + Lulu grey tote (it holds everything a busy working mum needs).
What is your fashion weakness?
Caroline: Dries van Noten shoes
Toni: Shoes.
What would you never compromise on with your designs?
Caroline: Shape.
Toni: Design.
How has your career influenced your style?
Caroline: I started my career as a nurse wearing a uniform for work - so I love a casual wardrobe full of different choices and different looks.
Toni: Living and breathing beautiful clothes gives you an appreciation of quality and good design.
What are you most proud of?
Caroline: Still being relevant 35 years later and the appreciation of our brand being shown every day by women wearing my clothes.
What are your best buys from the ranges for summer?
Caroline: The relaxed sidewalk jogger pant, which will be my go-to (when I travel to Cuba this month), teamed with our fine lawn shirts and the Sills Chrystie dress.
Toni: The new Sills stretch denim jeans, and the Isaac + Lulu cropped chambray blazer.
BEAUTY
Caroline's bathroom, beauty must haves and bedroom.
What does beauty mean to you?
Caroline: The package of health and well being, personality and good grooming. Also, not wearing a full beard and moustache!
Toni: Kindness, and a smile.
What are you must have beauty products?
Caroline: Nivea Gentle Cleansing Cream, True Solutions All Day Moisturiser with Zinc. I alternate between La Prairie Skin Caviar range and L'Oreal Age Perfect.
Toni: Eau Thermale Avène moisturiser and serum and also La Roche Posay products (which finally are available here in New Zealand).
What’s your most indulgent beauty buy?
Caroline: La Prarie.
Toni: Lilash.
What is your go-to beauty look?
Caroline: Quick and effective. I want to look gorgeous in ten minutes.
Toni: Tinted BB Cream with SPF, dark lashes and brows, a touch of bronzer and a nude lippy.
What do you always keep on your bedside table?
Caroline: My Kindle, an old fashioned alarm clock, a couple of books, a family photo and small vase of flowers.
Toni: A photo of the kiddies, Trilogy Intensive Lip Treatment, Ashley and Co hand cream and earplugs.
What will you carry in their beauty bag this summer?
Caroline: MAC Lipstick, Thin Lizzy for a quick touch up with Becca makeup brush. A travel size Annick Goutal Eau D’hadrien perfume, eye drops and nail file.
Toni: MAC travel lip kit, Chanel No 5 and a tinted sunscreen.
What beauty advice have you passed on to your daughters?
Caroline: Sunblock, sunblock, sunblock….hat, hat, hat.
What would we always find in your beauty bag?
Caroline: Toothpaste and a moisturizer.
Toni: La Roche Posay BB Cream.
What beauty advice do you find yourself sharing?
Caroline: Don’t smoke and stay out of the sun.
Toni: Drink plenty of water, sleep well and exercise.
You both have glorious hair, what’s your secret?
Caroline: Good genes and a good haircut.
Toni: A great colourist and a weekly hair mask.
What’s your signature scent?
Caroline: Jo Malone London Grapefruit.
Toni: Chanel Chance.
Caroline and Toni Sills.
Photography: Keryn Sweeney
Makeup artist Lochie Stonehouse using MAC Cosmetics