Heritage
A house, in its own words
Ingrid Starnes began in New Zealand in 2009, building a fashion label around the designer’s distinctive printed-silk garments. Independent coverage identifies Ingrid Starnes as a New Zealand designer and notes her local reputation for printed silk, while later features describe clothing, skincare, and fragrance within the same brand. The move into scent took shape over two years before Vetyver Bergamot appeared in 2013 as the label’s first perfume. Parfumo records four perfumes with known release years, with three arriving in 2019, indicating that scent became a more active part of the brand after the debut. The company later broadened its wardrobe categories to include lingerie, seasonal essentials, Ceremony Bridal, and custom-made pieces. In 2020, it adopted an online-first model. That change placed greater emphasis on direct digital presentation and reflects how the label has evolved from a designer-led clothing business into a wider lifestyle brand. Its history remains closely connected to New Zealand design, feminine wardrobe pieces, printed textiles, and a measured approach to fragrance development. The available coverage suggests that fragrance sits within Ingrid Starnes’ wider interest in personal style, natural materials, and carefully composed wardrobe essentials. The brand’s move into perfume was not a separate identity built around flashier fragrance language. Instead, it extended the sensibility of the clothing label into scent, with Vetyver Bergamot presented as an all-natural fragrance. That phrase is reported in independent beauty coverage, though the sourcing and composition of the ingredients are not specified there. The brand’s evolution into lingerie, bridalwear, seasonal clothing, skincare, and made-to-order garments points to a practical view of getting dressed, with different needs considered as part of one coherent wardrobe. Its 2020 online-first transition also reveals an adaptive approach to retail. Rather than treating fragrance as an isolated product line, Ingrid Starnes places it beside clothing and body care as part of a broader daily ritual. The central creative idea is therefore continuity across categories, expressed through restrained, wearable design and a fragrance vocabulary rooted in nature.