If one happens to be picking up a little something or other from Ottolenghi in Sloane Square on a Saturday afternoon, Emilia Wickstead may very well be there. She will probably be wearing a cable-knit sweater and full midi skirt of her own design—the effect of elegance when it doesn’t really matter encapsulates the Platonic ideal of style. Wickstead, a native of New Zealand and longtime Londoner, has been constructing ready-to-wear with the sensibility of a couturière since her brand’s founding, in 2008. Executives and Hollywood types alike have come to rely on her feminine silhouettes and fabric expertise, and now a gleaming new flagship on Sloane Street brings her entire aesthetic into stark relief. On the occasion of its opening, and after another strong showing at London’s Fashion Week, she reveals her key components to the good life. —Ashley Baker
Airlines: British Airways and Air New Zealand, a taste of home from both sides.
Airport: Zurich.
App: Spotify.
Bag: Prada.
Bedtime: Red-light therapy.
Best friend: My husband, Daniel.
Bike: With a basket at the front.
Birthday: A cozy dinner with friends.
Boyfriend: Daniel.
Breakfast, weekday: Scrambled eggs and spinach.
Breakfast, weekend: Granger & Co.
Car: A vintage Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Child: My two children, Mercedes Amalia and Gilberto.
Cocktail: Dirty martini.
Cocktail appetizer: Smoked-salmon blini.
Couple: Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.
Date: January 13, my grandmother’s birthday.
Diet:
Coke.
Dinner, weekday: Salmon and vegetables.
Dinner, weekend: A burger and fries.
Dress: Black
Escape: The seaside.
Hideaway: My home.
Hotel: The Carlyle, in New York.
Indulgence: Dark chocolate.
Insult: “You look tired.”
Jacket: Tailored.
Saying: “Never, never give up.”
Second spouse: My friend Blair.
Singer: Bruce Springsteen.
STORM: I love the sound of rain on the ceiling.
Street: Lonsdale Street in Auckland, New Zealand.
Television series: Sex and the City.
Toast: With Vegemite.
Vacation: New Zealand.
View: The sea.
Wake-up time: Seven a.m.
Work of art: Untitled, 2022, by Santiago Parra.
Emilia’s Essentials
