Precious Collaborative has been a dream of Wānaka based designer Claire O’Connell for many years. Claire has been immersed in the fashion world her whole life, she is a trained industrial designer and studied fashion design, working in pattern-making for many years.

A recent highlight was her garments winning first place in the Collections Category at the 2023/2024 Wool On fashion event.

Claire’s designs feature in the ready-to-wear collection, and she is thrilled to have her love of sustainable fabrics such as wool, tweed and hemp being realised as fashion garments. The ethics of sustainable fashion have been on Claire’s mind for a long time, and her innovative ‘one-to-many’ model is a new way to democratise it.

Claire is well known locally in Wānaka as co-owner of Wanaka Signs, along with her husband Sean who is also on the Advisory board of Precious Collaborative. Other board members are Sue McLean of McLean & Co, Michegro Chisholm of MLAB and Tracey Gibson of K-os Accounting.