Fashion & Beauty

Scissors of OZ: Sass & Bide goes from Down Under to Downtown

New York is a city sparkling with serendipity for Australian design duo Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton. On a visit in 2002, the pair happened upon a “Sex and the City” location shoot. Clarke boldly slipped one of their customized denim jackets to a security guard, who incredibly passed it on to Sarah Jessica Parker. The designers were beckoned to the star’s trailer the next day and soon commissioned to design a few pieces for the show.

A decade of success and famous followers (including fashion superstars Kate Moss, Madonna, Beyoncé, and Rihanna) later, it’s only fitting that the women behind ready-to-wear line Sass & Bide returned to the Big Apple to launch their first international flagship last month.

Sass & Bide designers Heidi Middleton (left) and Sarah-Jane Clarke are selling their fantastical creations in the US for the first time.Courtesy of the designer.

For the first time, the brand’s fantastical wares — think a structured metallic cocktail dress trimmed in raffia, or a tribal-inspired beaded corset attached to a minimalist high-low skirt — are available stateside.

“We had always loved markets and vintage clothing, mixing the old with the new,” explains Clarke about the line’s aesthetic origins. “But when we looked for jeans, we couldn’t find anything that we really loved, so we ended up buying jeans and altering them ourselves.”

The Aussie pals met during college (Clarke was studying to be an accountant; Middleton, prepping to become an art director), and first cut their fashion teeth hawking their denim wares in London’s Portobello Road Market before returning home to Australia.

In 2000, Clarke and Middleton sent fangirls into a tizzy with the release of their first hit pair of low-slung, vintage-washed jeans, which they dubbed the “East Village Hipster” — an auspicious homage to NYC.

They’ve since opened 21 boutiques and 20 concession stores in Australia and New Zealand. And they returned for a triumphant spring 2014 show at New York Fashion Week last September after a five-year hiatus.

Their new Soho shop, at 480 Broome St., is a 2,000-square-foot gallery-inspired space, finished in a bright white hue. Cube-shaped shelves are chock-full of Sass & Bide signature denim, while more luxe pieces from their Gallery collection hang from white rails beneath a tree-like sculpture that writhes throughout the boutique. Ready-to-wear items and accessories such as colorful beaded clutches and metallic belts complete the offerings.

In honor of their first US brick-and-mortar, the duo is also offering 10 pieces exclusive to the NYC store. Some fabrics may seem foreign to an Aussie (wool coats accented with quilted leather!) but will send their New York fan base flocking — as will the chunky black and white knitwear, free-flowing embellished frocks and sharply tailored jackets.

“My personal favorite would have to be the gold metallic fitted tailored jacket, which I haven’t taken off all winter!” says Middleton.

Welcome home, mates.

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“Memory Lane” T-shirt, $260
“Memory Lane” T-shirt, $260Courtesy of the designer
“Make a Reservation” dress, $890
“Make a Reservation” dress, $890 Courtesy of the designer
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Metal “Inventor” belt, $450
Metal “Inventor” belt, $450 Courtesy of the designer
“By Night” earrings, $170
“By Night” earrings, $170Courtesy of the designer
“Memoir” jeans, $290
“Memoir” jeans, $290 Courtesy of the designer
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“Utterly Madcap” clutch, $350
“Utterly Madcap” clutch, $350Courtesy of the designer
“Art Scene” jacket, $590
“Art Scene” jacket, $590Courtesy of the designer
“World of Traps” top, $590
“World of Traps” top, $590 Courtesy of the designer
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