In Residence with
Wynn Hamlyn
Inside the central Auckland home of Wynn & Lana Crawshaw.
There are brands that chase the moment, and there are brands that create their own. Since 2015, Wynn Hamlyn has always been the latter.
Starting in the Bay of Plenty with a quietly confident hand, Wynn Hamlyn became one of New Zealand's most distinctive fashion voices - womenswear and menswear that balanced minimalism with something more interesting. A neckline cut differently. A colour that shouldn't work but does. The kind of garment that earns its place in a wardrobe for years.
Behind the label: Wynn Crawshaw, the designer, and Lana, his partner in life and in business. Two people who built something meaningful together, and who have now made the considered decision to press pause, choosing to honour what they have created rather than compromise it.
As their final spring/summer collection arrives, we sat down with Wynn and Lana in their home to talk about a decade of doing things their way.
Wynn, you founded this label ten years ago from the Bay of Plenty. When you look back at that version of yourself and the brand you've built since, what surprises you most about the journey?
What surprises me most, especially looking back from this point, is how consistent the core ideas around craft and innovation have remained - while still allowing for so many different iterations along the way.
At the beginning, it was very instinctive: a focus on making things properly, understanding fabrication, and pushing construction in quiet, deliberate ways. Over time, that evolved through different phases - there were moments that were more expressive, more textural, others that felt more restrained or stripped back - but they were all really different interpretations of the same underlying values.
In the context of finishing WH and looking at the final collections, it feels like those ideas have come into their most resolved form. The experimentation is still there, but it’s more precise. The craft is more considered, more distilled. It’s less about introducing something new each season, and more about refining and deepening what’s already there.
Your eye for materiality and form is so evident in the clothes - does that same sensibility carry through into the way you think about interior spaces?
A lot of what I have has come from second-hand marketplaces or things picked up along the way, so it has a sense of history and irregularity. Nothing is too perfect. There’s a kind of family feeling to it - slightly wonky, lived-in, a mix of hard and soft, functional and playful.
I think that balance is very similar to the clothes. It’s about how different materials and forms sit alongside each other, how something more refined can exist next to something quite raw or unexpected. It’s not overly composed; it’s more intuitive and evolves over time.
A home reveals itself in the things people choose to keep. What are the objects here that carry the most weight for you, and what stories do they hold?
A lot of the objects that carry the most weight are tied to people and time. We’ve collected artworks slowly - Emma McIntyre pieces from our wedding, work by Claudia Kogachi from Lana's graduating class, and a veil piece from Jade Townsend that represents much of our friendship and time at WH.
Family photos are just as important. A friend once said if you place them at the centre of your home, that becomes your family’s focus - and I really believe that. They’re in odd frames, showing different ages and stages, and together they hold a kind of living history.
You've built a successful business together - as a couple, as collaborators, as parents. What does it actually look like to share a creative life with your partner?
A creative life together doesn’t really separate into neat parts - it runs through everything. There’s no clear divide between creative time, admin, or family life; it’s all happening at once.
It’s a constant process of working things out side by side, having conversations when inspiration hits, and finding ideas in the middle of busy, often overwhelming moments. Over time, it becomes less about roles and more about trust - moving together, each bringing your own strengths.
It’s big, busy, and messy, but that’s what defines it. The more you lean into that, the more you get out of it.
How has your interior world evolved since becoming parents? What informs the way you think about the spaces you live in, and what has changed about what you want to be surrounded by?
Our interior world has definitely evolved. Before kids, it was more about a clear aesthetic - an idea of how we wanted things to look and feel. But once you have children, that shifts quite quickly. The space becomes more practical, more playful, and overall a bit messier.
What’s been important is not losing your point of view within that. It’s about making strong, intentional choices that can hold everything else around them. For example, our Baya rug has become the centre of our living room - it’s durable, practical, and now a space where our son can crawl and play, but it still feels considered.
The spring/summer collection marks a chapter closing and a breath being taken. What do you hope people feel when they wear a piece from this final collection, and what do you want to carry forward into whatever comes next?
The spring/summer collection feels less like a final statement and more like a reflection of the last ten years - an expression of a point of view that’s been built and refined over time.
More than anything, I hope people feel that when they wear it - that they’re wearing something with a clear, unique perspective. Not something trend-driven, but something that feels distinct, considered, and able to live with them as their wardrobe evolves.