Silver linings

KYLIE COOKE

FASHIONING A NEW LIFE IN SRI LANKA

The pandemic changed things for all of us, but for Kylie Cooke and her family, it’s delivered an exotic new life they never knew was waiting for them

For the past year, Kylie could be found in a small factory on the south coast of Sri Lanka bringing her dream garment collection to life. Community artisans worked their magic, sewing locally sourced fabric into beautiful dresses designed entirely by the former Auckland stylist.

With the help of her husband Brant Fraser, a production designer, Kylie launched her debut fashion label Only Lovers late last year, courtesy of a little Covid-19 shake-up.

“We feel very lucky that before the pandemic hit, we’d already chosen to take a year off to travel, reconnect as a family and get busy designing a better lifestyle,” says Kylie, 47, mum to son Foxton, four. “We sold our home in Auckland to move to Sydney because Brant was doing the majority of his work there, which meant we’d missed out on a lot of family time together. But then the bush fires happened, and we were forced to rethink as it was definitely not the time to invest there.”

Without a mortgage tying them down and excited by the idea of exploring the world, the couple planned a trip to Europe, stopping first in Sri Lanka to visit one of Kylie’s old school friends.

“Afterwards, we’d planned to go to Italy for the month of May to celebrate all three of our birthdays, and because Foxy loves pasta,” Kylie says. “We had tickets to London and then it was Spain, France and Morocco. Our itinerary was open to see where the winds would take us.”

But one relaxing month into their Sri Lanka trip, news of the global pandemic broke. “We’d only started our travel, so we were more than a little reluctant about going back to winter in New Zealand, especially without a home to live in,” she recalls. “We worked through all of our options and decided the safest thing for our little family would be to stay here, even though it could be for a long time.”

The trio headed to Hiriketiya, a village on the south coast, where they spent the country’s lockdown in a rented cottage. “It was a perfect little haven for us, a short walk