NYLON - August 2008 - (Page 88) FOR LOVER’S NIC BRIAND AND SUSIEN CHONG, HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS, AND THAT HEART IS NAMED POTATO. BY KATE WILLIAMS. PHOTOGRAPHED BY CAROLYN RICHARDSON LOVE NEST Potato is the center of attention in the Lover household. “She doesn’t really do anything, and people come to her,” Nic Briand says of their ridiculously cute grey kitten. “You are such a Russian model,” he tells her. “We actually aren’t allowed to have a cat,” Susien Chong says, “but everyone else in the building had one. So, you know…” “You’ve got to get a cat!” Briand jokes. “You get 10, 12 years into a relationship, and you need something else to talk about.” Ever since a chance meeting on the street 12 years ago, Briand and Chong have been a couple, and for the past six years, since they started women’s denim and clothing line Lover (they once collaborated with Levi’s to create Lover Loves Levi’s), business partners as well. Though they now have an office in Sydney’s Surry Hills, their onebedroom apartment in the suburb of Bondi was Lover’s first home. “It was a glorified walk-in wardrobe, and our dispatch and warehouse was in the hallway,” Chong says. “We’ve got really great photos of us in here with racks reaching up to the ceiling.” Lover first started selling their clothes by loading up the car and heading down the street to the famous Bondi Beach markets. “I don’t think we even hit the gas,” Briand says. “We just rolled down the hill, stopped, and then unloaded it.” “Sometimes our car was so packed with clothing racks and things that Nic wouldn’t even fit in, and he would have to walk down,” Chong adds. Their apartment is clearly inhabitated by people whose work is more than just a job, and there are traces of the label throughout. Poster-sized lookbook images rest against a wall, mixed in with vintage science fiction movie posters; smaller ones are tacked on the fridge alongside childhood photos and tarot cards; and the original inspiration board, from the first collection, still hangs in a workspace off the bedroom. “That board is exactly the same as when we first started,” Briand says. “We pinned that Cat Power image on the board and thought, when we started a label, it’s got to feel like a Cat Power song; have that same sense about it.” The main space is dominated with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that are packed to the gills with books, magazines, and more DVDs than Blockbuster. “I think we actually buy more DVDs than we could humanly watch,” Briand says. “We go to Virgin Megastore when we get to New York, and we buy baskets full of stuff.” “And then there’ll be a rainy Sunday afternoon, and we’ll pull the original cat power inspiration board; briand and chong in their hallway; the original potato; a small showing of the dvd collection; even the dining table is covered with books. nesting
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