The co-founder of file-sharing service Napster and first president of Facebook, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $US2 billion, turned to an Auckland outfit to dress his 180 male guests.
When United States tech mogul Sean Parker suited up to wed singer Alexandra Lenas last month it was in the custom-made threads of Auckland tailors Strangely Normal.
The co-founder of file-sharing service Napster and first president of Facebook, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $US2 billion, also dressed his 180 male guests in coats, trousers, waistcoats and shirts designed by Strangely Normal.
The off-beat label’s founders, Clare Dutton and Michael Cox, were sworn to secrecy about the costumes ahead of the wedding – reportedly a $US10 million affair – but this week spoke more freely to NBR ONLINE about their gigantic effort in wedding costumery.
Sadly, there are no photos to show for their handiwork as guests were not allowed to take any at the California-based wedding and they could not photograph during fittings with the groom.
Mr Parker personally invited the couple to join him at the wedding during the second suit fitting just days out from the event.
“It looked absolutely splendid,” Ms Dutton says of the elaborate Lord of the RIngs forest-themed occasion. “There was unbelievable attention to detail in almost everything.
"Mr Parker spent a long time planning the wedding. He had fairly definite ideas of what he wanted and wanted the costumes to be like Lord of the Rings.”
Even the salad was foraged from older types of vegetation, she says.
Really fantastic people
“We met really fantastic people at the wedding… CEOs of companies and venture capitalists, people in the music industry … all really nice people.”
Their involvement started months earlier when Oscar-winning Kiwi costume designer Ngila Dickson, of Lord of the Rings fame, was hired to create the concepts and commissioned Strangely Normal to design and make all the garments for the men.
Ms Dickson simply gave them concept drawings and garment samples of a coat and shirt to work from.
Fabric, which had to be at least 30% mohair, took weeks to find in the limited colour range to fit the forest theme: greens, browns, blues and aubergine.
They were only given height and weight details of each guest from which to draft the patterns, requiring a lot of guesswork when it came to the chest and waist measurements.
They were still receiving measurements up to the point the taxi pulled up at their Avondale workroom to take them to the airport – 12 days before the wedding.
Mr Parker’s fittings were scheduled for the final week to accommodate his pre-marriage weight loss.
The tailors made him up three choices of trousers, three coats and six waistcoats to choose from for his big day.
Ms Dutton, Mr Cox and a third Strangely Normal staffer worked up to 11-hour days, across three different workrooms in New York, San Francisco and Monterey, California, on all the final costumes and alterations.
In total they provided 220 three-piece suits and shirts to allow for last-minute changes and emergencies.
The wedding required months of hard work and Ms Dutton says there were times she wanted out, but the results were extremely rewarding and Mr Parker was “well pleased” and appreciative of their efforts.
The money was certainly worth it, too, she says.
The tailors have returned to salvage what they can from the winter season and to prepare samples of summer garments for a Trade Fair in Las Vegas next month.
Strangely Normal beginnings
Ms Dutton and Mr Cox founded Strangely Normal in 1977, when they began selling vintage clothing alongside 1950s-inspired menswear at Cook St Market.
As the availability of original clothing in good order grew scarce, they started making new garments, paying homage to the 1950s and 60s style, and selling them from their first shop on Hobson St.
The current store in the CBD's O’Connell St heartland was opened in 2006. It exudes design flamboyance and retro-flair in everything from leopard-skin patterned shoes to Day of the Dead shirts and Michael's renowned range of Panama hats.
New York-based business consultant Ron Elliott invested in Strangely Normal in 2011 and is understood to have helped the company expand into the US.
Mr Elliott, who holds a 26% stake, started early childhood educational product supplier Excelligence Learning Corp in 1985, taking it through a Nasdaq IPO in a reverse merger before selling it to a private equity firm.
