Dark Fairy Dust: The Story of The Vampire’s Wife
On 21 May 2024, The Vampire's Wife, announced its closure, explaining that 'despite a period of positive growth and sales, the upheaval in the wholesale market has had dramatic implications for the brand.' In honour and memory of their iconic and imaginative collections, we are re-releasing Dark Fairy Dust: The story of The Vampire’s Wife by Deborah Nash, originally published in Selvedge issue 114: Regeneration.
The Story of The Vampire’s Wife
In Salley Vicker’s debut novel Miss Garnet’s Angel, (2000) a retired school teacher, Julia Garnet, buys silk underwear while shopping in Venice. The cobwebby lace of the French knickers and the sheen of the cream camisole top attract her attention, and overcoming her embarrassment, she tries them on. Standing in front of the changing room mirror, Julia feels the touch of gauzy cloth against her skin and has, for the first time in her life, an experience of sensuality. She purchases the underwear, knowing that no one will ever know she is wearing it – except herself – and through this tentative sartorial adventure, her long-dormant femininity begins to blossom. The sensuality of a garment, its tactile qualities and its emotional impact on the wearer are one of the delights of The Vampire’s Wife fashion label. Co-founded by former model Susie Bick, and based in Lewes, East Sussex, the company’s silk-blend dresses, blouses, and capes seduce from the moment you slip them on. Deceptively simple in design but artfully cut, the filmy silk, satin, chiffon, viscose, and organza feel beautiful on the inside and accentuate the form, aided by tiny details: a concealed zip or seams with baby lock finish, occasionally in a sparkly thread, to create what Susie describes as “fairy dust on a dress.”
Image: Florence Welch in performance and on her album cover Dance Fever wearing The Vampire’s Wife. Image above: Florence Welch wearing The Vampire’s Wife.
The Vampire’s Wife is named after the title of an unfinished novel by Susie’s husband, the Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave. Some dresses reference his song lyrics, such as “The Ghosteen,” a feather-trim velvet kaftan gown. In return, Susie makes a haunting appearance on Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ album cover Push The Sky Away, looking like Eve banished from Eden, her face curtained by her raven black hair. Susie’s childhood was migratory, moving from Cheshire to Nigeria and Malawi as a child, settling back in the UK in Bromley and, while still a teen, eccentrically escaping from boarding school on a milk float, then on to Japan, at a time when Japanese fashion was at the vanguard, with designers Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto (for whom she modelled).
A career in modelling proved a way of learning every aspect of the fashion business, from hair, make-up and photography shoots to fabrics and processes. When Susie married Nick Cave in 1999 and became pregnant with twins, she moved away from modelling and started experimenting with her design ideas. Working with a pattern-cutter to make a calico toile for her body shape, Susie added her first ruffles and the fabled and irreplaceable Falconetti was born. This became the fashion label’s signature dress, worn by stars of stage and screen – Rachel Weisz, Keira Knightley, Tilda Swinton, and Jennifer Aniston – and the royal family – the Princess of Wales and Princess Beatrice. “The shape I gravitate towards is a strong silhouette that shows the power and glory of the female form without a need to show a whole lot of flesh,” Susie explained in an interview for Harper’s Bazaar. “There needs to be a tension between what is seen and what exists within the imagination. The imagination is the wellspring of sensuality!” Susie’s inspirations include the French actor Isabelle Adjani, who, in the film One Deadly Summer, asks her seamstress mother who is working on her wedding dress to “make it tight with lots of lace and trimmings, like Marilyn Monroe!” Marilyn Monroe’s fitted show-stoppers (particularly the bust darts!) are another. Who can forget the flesh-tinted sequin gown she was reputedly sewn into to sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” in 1962? Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s film precursor to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) used 700 yards of cellophane to realise Titania’s fairy world, which presents Anita Louise as the queen in a twinkly robe of silvery shreds – a sylph-like precursor to a Vampire’s Wife creation.
Image: The Vampire’s Wife: Founder Susie Bick with husband Nick Cave in the Studio at Charleston Farmhouse, May 2023.
The distinctive silhouettes of the clothes ensure maximum visibility from a distance, and the sense of ceremony that surrounds them explains their appeal to performers, a number of whom are regular wearers. Among them is Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine, a particularly apt pairing given the band’s music was used in the soundtracks to the 4Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Vampire Diaries. Welch herself has the kind of Pre-Raphaelite looks to sharpen the label’s mystique, with her cascading auburn hair and pale complexion that seems to cry out for blood. Her image graces album covers in Vampire Wife attire, Welch also wears the label both in performance and off-stage. Too flamboyant for commercial production, these one-offs are achieved by the back-and-forth of drawings, colour swatches, and lace samples between stylist and designer. An understanding of how fabrics work under lights and the use of silk teddy's ensure the singer does not appear naked on stage. Despite the company’s many successes the family suffered a great personal loss.
A year after founding the label, the Caves’ son, Arthur, died in a fall from a clifftop not far from the couple’s Brighton home. The tragedy left a deep wound and an unfillable absence. When Susie received a chance commission to create an outfit for Daisy Lowe to wear to the GQ Awards, she was recalled from her inner darkness and returned to the world of fashion. The result was the “Red Velvet Night Garden Dress,” a brilliant life-affirming ankle-licking vermilion evening gown. In the years since, Susie says she has been drawn to those who grieve and formed a friendship with the co-founder of Cloud Workshops, a charity caring for bereaved children in New Zealand. She later donated fabric scraps for the children to make small protector dolls with vampire fang teeth. Subversive and personal, The Vampire’s Wife keeps a tight ship, producing two collections a year from its Lewes base in East Sussex, drawing in the like-minded and the local, including Earl (Arthur’s twin brother) and his friends, who pack the orders. Lewes has a gothic tilt, with its ruined castle and famous bonfires, when the town is closed to outsiders and residents take part in tar-barrel rolling and torchlit processions that commemorate the burning of 17 martyrs in the 16th century. It is also where the radical Thomas Paine settled in 1768 and, according to the blue plaque at the White Hart Hotel, set out his ideas on revolutionary politics. Such is The Vampire Wife story so far.
Image: Image right: Florence Welch wearing The Vampire’s Wife.
Fashion has many sides, but in this company’s tale, a dress becomes a talisman for good: “To save the world, one dress at a time,” says Eva Wiseman of the Observer. A dress can deliver many things. It can be a mask, a protector, a distraction, an uplifter, a conversation starter, or an ice-breaker. The unusual synchronicity between the Cave couple’s backstory and their style and interests (many listed in the stuff section of the label’s website) feeds into the look, feel and naming of the garments, in turn spilling out into the wardrobes of the lucky, sprinkling dark fairy dust onto a performance, spreading a message of resilience, to ride out the dark times, to rise again.
Guest edited by Deborah Nash
www.thevampireswife.com
@thevampireswife
The Story of The Vampire’s Wife
In Salley Vicker’s debut novel Miss Garnet’s Angel, (2000) a retired school teacher, Julia Garnet, buys silk underwear while shopping in Venice. The cobwebby lace of the French knickers and the sheen of the cream camisole top attract her attention, and overcoming her embarrassment, she tries them on. Standing in front of the changing room mirror, Julia feels the touch of gauzy cloth against her skin and has, for the first time in her life, an experience of sensuality. She purchases the underwear, knowing that no one will ever know she is wearing it – except herself – and through this tentative sartorial adventure, her long-dormant femininity begins to blossom. The sensuality of a garment, its tactile qualities and its emotional impact on the wearer are one of the delights of The Vampire’s Wife fashion label. Co-founded by former model Susie Bick, and based in Lewes, East Sussex, the company’s silk-blend dresses, blouses, and capes seduce from the moment you slip them on. Deceptively simple in design but artfully cut, the filmy silk, satin, chiffon, viscose, and organza feel beautiful on the inside and accentuate the form, aided by tiny details: a concealed zip or seams with baby lock finish, occasionally in a sparkly thread, to create what Susie describes as “fairy dust on a dress.”
The Vampire’s Wife is named after the title of an unfinished novel by Susie’s husband, the Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave. Some dresses reference his song lyrics, such as “The Ghosteen,” a feather-trim velvet kaftan gown. In return, Susie makes a haunting appearance on Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ album cover Push The Sky Away, looking like Eve banished from Eden, her face curtained by her raven black hair. Susie’s childhood was migratory, moving from Cheshire to Nigeria and Malawi as a child, settling back in the UK in Bromley and, while still a teen, eccentrically escaping from boarding school on a milk float, then on to Japan, at a time when Japanese fashion was at the vanguard, with designers Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto (for whom she modelled).
A career in modelling proved a way of learning every aspect of the fashion business, from hair, make-up and photography shoots to fabrics and processes. When Susie married Nick Cave in 1999 and became pregnant with twins, she moved away from modelling and started experimenting with her design ideas. Working with a pattern-cutter to make a calico toile for her body shape, Susie added her first ruffles and the fabled and irreplaceable Falconetti was born. This became the fashion label’s signature dress, worn by stars of stage and screen – Rachel Weisz, Keira Knightley, Tilda Swinton, and Jennifer Aniston – and the royal family – the Princess of Wales and Princess Beatrice. “The shape I gravitate towards is a strong silhouette that shows the power and glory of the female form without a need to show a whole lot of flesh,” Susie explained in an interview for Harper’s Bazaar. “There needs to be a tension between what is seen and what exists within the imagination. The imagination is the wellspring of sensuality!” Susie’s inspirations include the French actor Isabelle Adjani, who, in the film One Deadly Summer, asks her seamstress mother who is working on her wedding dress to “make it tight with lots of lace and trimmings, like Marilyn Monroe!” Marilyn Monroe’s fitted show-stoppers (particularly the bust darts!) are another. Who can forget the flesh-tinted sequin gown she was reputedly sewn into to sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” in 1962? Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s film precursor to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) used 700 yards of cellophane to realise Titania’s fairy world, which presents Anita Louise as the queen in a twinkly robe of silvery shreds – a sylph-like precursor to a Vampire’s Wife creation.
Image: The Vampire’s Wife: Founder Susie Bick with husband Nick Cave in the Studio at Charleston Farmhouse, May 2023.The distinctive silhouettes of the clothes ensure maximum visibility from a distance, and the sense of ceremony that surrounds them explains their appeal to performers, a number of whom are regular wearers. Among them is Florence Welch of Florence + The Machine, a particularly apt pairing given the band’s music was used in the soundtracks to the 4Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Vampire Diaries. Welch herself has the kind of Pre-Raphaelite looks to sharpen the label’s mystique, with her cascading auburn hair and pale complexion that seems to cry out for blood. Her image graces album covers in Vampire Wife attire, Welch also wears the label both in performance and off-stage. Too flamboyant for commercial production, these one-offs are achieved by the back-and-forth of drawings, colour swatches, and lace samples between stylist and designer. An understanding of how fabrics work under lights and the use of silk teddy's ensure the singer does not appear naked on stage. Despite the company’s many successes the family suffered a great personal loss.
A year after founding the label, the Caves’ son, Arthur, died in a fall from a clifftop not far from the couple’s Brighton home. The tragedy left a deep wound and an unfillable absence. When Susie received a chance commission to create an outfit for Daisy Lowe to wear to the GQ Awards, she was recalled from her inner darkness and returned to the world of fashion. The result was the “Red Velvet Night Garden Dress,” a brilliant life-affirming ankle-licking vermilion evening gown. In the years since, Susie says she has been drawn to those who grieve and formed a friendship with the co-founder of Cloud Workshops, a charity caring for bereaved children in New Zealand. She later donated fabric scraps for the children to make small protector dolls with vampire fang teeth. Subversive and personal, The Vampire’s Wife keeps a tight ship, producing two collections a year from its Lewes base in East Sussex, drawing in the like-minded and the local, including Earl (Arthur’s twin brother) and his friends, who pack the orders. Lewes has a gothic tilt, with its ruined castle and famous bonfires, when the town is closed to outsiders and residents take part in tar-barrel rolling and torchlit processions that commemorate the burning of 17 martyrs in the 16th century. It is also where the radical Thomas Paine settled in 1768 and, according to the blue plaque at the White Hart Hotel, set out his ideas on revolutionary politics. Such is The Vampire Wife story so far.
Fashion has many sides, but in this company’s tale, a dress becomes a talisman for good: “To save the world, one dress at a time,” says Eva Wiseman of the Observer. A dress can deliver many things. It can be a mask, a protector, a distraction, an uplifter, a conversation starter, or an ice-breaker. The unusual synchronicity between the Cave couple’s backstory and their style and interests (many listed in the stuff section of the label’s website) feeds into the look, feel and naming of the garments, in turn spilling out into the wardrobes of the lucky, sprinkling dark fairy dust onto a performance, spreading a message of resilience, to ride out the dark times, to rise again.
Guest edited by Deborah Nash
www.thevampireswife.com
@thevampireswife