June 01, 2018
At home with Macayla Chapman
Tell us a little about Bird & Knoll, how did it start? What inspired it? Bird & Knoll is the genesis of a love of travel, fashion and beautiful soft natural textiles. My business partner Nat, an ex banker turned professional photographer approached me with the idea and the pitch line “your the only person I could dream of doing this with”. Bird & Knoll was born in 2014 creating luxury scarves using the softest premium cashmere, silks and cottons as a canvas to showcase our personal artistic narratives, captured via our camera lens, from our travels around the world. Each limited edition collection exhibits a kaleidoscope of colour and local flavour, which plays to a universal desire for adventure and wanderlust. In 2016, we segued into resort wear, the ultimate complement to the brand’s existing accessory range and travel-with-style ethos. These are pieces that we desired to wear when travelling and day to day... timeless kaftans, elegantly relaxed dresses and chic beach cover ups that are versatile and effortless. Inspired by our travels each piece is playfully named after some ‘memoir’ from the journey. Feminine, relaxed and always effortlessly elegant.
The business is based out of Sydney, and you are based in Auckland. How does that work for you? As a whole it works really well, we feel it is actually more of an advantage (glass half full and all) as we both look after our respective markets and cover more area this way, however not so good when it comes to Friday night work drinks... clinking champagne glasses over skype just isn’t quite the same. What are some of the things you cannot live without at home? Our pets Chico, Lola and Broccoli. We always comment when we are away how weird it is not having them around. There is never a time that someone isn’t sitting on the couch without an animal on them. My daughter and Chico often play ‘cats’ together and he seems to talk to her in a series of meows like he’s answering her questions … as for Broccoli, look at that face … pretty hard not to love that !
Any Auckland must dos for travellers? A day trip to Waiheke Island to explore the golden sand beaches and vineyards, weekend camping at Tawhranui beach stopping off at the farmers markets in Matakana on the way for food supplies, ferry over to and walk up Rangitoto Island... the view is spectacular, surf trip to one of the stunning west coast beaches like Piha or Bethells, head up the sky tower for a 360 degree view of Auckland - night time is just as cool as during the day and lastly visit the Kaipra coast sculptural gardens.
Favourite fragrance? I love a variety of fragrances, I associate different smells with travel and childhood memories … coconut & frangipani reminds me of Fiji, eucalyptus reminds me of Australia and Peru strangely, there were so many eucalyptus trees there, tobacco, my favourite Coqui Coqui fragrance, reminds me of Mexico and I think my favourite of all fig reminds me of home.
