They’re very much united in their approach of marrying classic design with contemporary style.
If you were making a film about couture bridal designers Fritz & Sarah, the script might go something like this: South African designer Fritz Botha relocates to Auckland in 2018 and while designing bridal collections for a local boutique he bonds with fellow designer, Christchurch-born Sarah Pascall-Posthuma.
Fast forward to late 2020 when the pair join forces to start a high-end bridal label. Initially called Sarah & Co, after six months they re-brand to Fritz & Sarah and go on to become one of New Zealand’s most coveted bridal studios.
Of course, that’s only part of the Fritz & Sarah story. To start at the beginning you’d have to visit Johannesburg, where a five-year-old Fritz would cut up his mother’s curtains to create outfits for his aBarbie dolls. Design was clearly hardwired into Fritz’s DNA and he later ran a bridal business with a family member for seven years.
Sarah, meanwhile, was doing much the same on this side of the planet (minus cutting her mother’s curtains).
“Every school holiday I would stay with my grandmother in Picton,” recalls Sarah. “She was a big quilter who was so pedantic that she made me unpick my sewing until I got it right. At the time I hated it but I guess that’s where I got my attention to detail from. And that’s what you need in the bridal industry, because if a bead or piece of lace is out of place, then you need to go back and change it.”
Sarah’s first foray into business was making wheat bags to sell to her mother’s physiotherapy clients. She eventually completed a three-year fashion design diploma which led her to interning for the likes of Kate Sylvester and working in both alteration and bridal studios.
The latter is where she met Fritz when she was his assistant.
“We immediately clicked over everything from music to visual design.”
So when the opportunity to consolidate their considerable expertise and talents arose during the global pandemic, they jumped at it.
“We started off doing alterations to bridal dresses and were lucky in those early days that other bridal designers referred their clients to us.”
Bridal alterations still make up the bulk of their business but finding the perfect fit for brides has also helped the pair refine their own style.
“When you take apart a $20,000 dress, you see the tailoring and attention to detail which has informed our own design ethos. But it also teaches you what works and what doesn’t, because we notice so many dresses with the same issue: not enough boning in the corset, especially for sizes where the bust needs more support and structure. So we’re really conscious of that in our designs.”
The plan was always to design their own collection, and last year they did just that, launching Muse, a 12-piece range inspired by their favourite performers.
“We looked to women singers who inspire us and thought, if we were designing a wedding dress for Adele, what would it look like? Each gown was named after a popular singer.”
For this year’s Be Mine collection, their second, the pair chose to look inwards for inspiration, to women in their own lives.
“Each of the eight gowns is inspired and named after our mothers, sisters, grandmothers and friends. These are the women in our lives who have taught us how to love and be loved, and we wanted to celebrate them. For example, one is called the Susan gown after my mother. I took elements from Mum’s wedding dress that I absolutely loved and recreated them in this gown which is an homage to her.”
While Sarah is more of a minimalist in her design approach, Fritz is the opposite. “When it comes to the finishing touches of a dress, I always want to remove three things but Fritz will beg to add more! He wants more beads and more rouging, bigger hair, bigger earrings and I’m the one saying no. But our partnership works because we meet in that happy middle ground.”
They’re very much united in their approach of marrying classic design with contemporary style.
“We’ve found that Kiwi brides lean towards a more classic wedding style, rather than focusing on extreme trends. We want to give the bride something classic and timeless, that they’ll still love in 10 years time, but with an interesting twist, a feature that makes each dress a little different. Fritz loves to drape fabric and do ruching and pleating, and we both love the structure of a corset, so a lot of our dresses have those features, which is what we’re known for.”
The duo are also known for their stylish new headquarters in Auckland’s Parnell Road, which they moved into in March this year.
“For the first two years of the business, we rented a place further down Parnell Road that was a bit too corporate and didn’t have enough character for us. We spent a day looking at so many venues that weren’t right that we had blisters on our feet! The very last viewing of the day was this heritage villa, which was once a house, and although the agent thought we wouldn’t like it, as soon as we saw it we knew it was perfect.”
Thanks to Sarah’s husband Chris Posthuma, who did most of the renovation work, they now have a more suitable backdrop for their wedding dresses.
“The studio, like our dresses, is timeless and charming.”
Keeping any small business going in 2024 can be tough but Sarah says their commitment to quality and zero waste goes a long way.
“We keep all our off-cuts because we end up using them for alteration clients, and we also make everything in-house by hand. For us, this business isn’t just about dressing brides beautifully for their big day, it’s also about ensuring the fit and style is perfect and that we’re doing what we do well, sustainably and ethically.”
For more information, visit fritzandsarah.co.nz and @fritzandsarah.
