From Saltysea to Slowly Golden - The Full Story

The beginning of something I couldn't yet name

Most people who find Slowly Golden now see the website, the resort work, the creative direction and assume that's always been what this was. It wasn't, not even close!

This is the full story.

From a flight to Bali in 2017 to the website that launched this week. The stores, the names, the pop-ups, the pivots, and the decisions that kept feeling right even when they were terrifying.

2017 - Bali and the beginning
In 2017 I decided I wanted to create a swimwear label. I researched manufacturers in Bali, narrowed it down, and flew over to meet them face to face. One woman in particular stood out immediately, we clicked, we aligned on something I couldn't quite articulate but knew was real. She was my point of contact, and when I sat down with her the wheels kept spinning far beyond what I'd originally planned. What started as a swim label became a full swim and activewear collection. She still works with me today.

The label was called Saltysea.

2018, NZ Fashion Week and the first pop-up
In 2018 I launched my collection at New Zealand Fashion Week. I collaborated with a custom surfboard shaper and Birkenstock, and the models walked the runway to Black Betty. It was unexpected, and it taught me to trust my own creative instinct.

That same year, I ran an Easter pop-up in Waihi Beach, bringing in other like-minded brands, letting the community lead. It worked, and more than that, it felt like something. The kind of feeling that tells you you're on the right track.

2019, The Salty Collective was born
The pop-up was successful enough that I signed a lease. The Salty Collective opened in 2019, a physical store, a rack of pieces I genuinely loved, a community forming around something I was building in real time.

I traded there until developers bought the land.

2022, A second store and a new name.
I opened a second store and somewhere between the first and the second, the name changed. Slowly Golden. Unhurried, warm, intentional. It was the name that finally matched the vision I'd been building toward all along and the one that's carried everything since.

Growing beyond four walls
During those two years in the second store, I was becoming someone different. Not worse, just more. I valued freedom too much to stay still, and I kept saying yes to things outside of shop hours, resort projects, brand shoots, creative direction, storytelling for brands that trusted me with their voice.

Each yes made the direction clearer.

In 2024 I closed the second store and went fully online. It was one of the scariest decisions I'd made. And it was completely right. I had my people in my corner the entire way, constantly supporting and cheering me on through every version of this and that made every scary moment survivable.

Summer 2025/26, a pop-up
At the end of 2025/beginning of 2026, an opportunity came up to do a pop-up shop, six and a half weeks over the summer holidays, seven days a week, running it alongside my current workload. My mum came over to help, it was full on in the best possible way.

Being back amongst the community, seeing all the beautiful faces that had supported this journey over the years, I didn't know how much I needed that until I was in it. Short and sharp. The perfect way to close that chapter.

2026 - A whole new space
The new Slowly Golden website is live. And for the first time, everything I do lives in one place, the brand work, the content, the resort projects, the resources, the retreats, and yes, still the shop. Because the store started this, and it's not going anywhere.

It's been a longer journey than most people know. One that started with a flight to Bali and has wound through fashion weeks and leases and rebrands and pop-ups and pivots and early mornings and scary decisions and the most incredible community cheering me on the whole way.

This feels like the right next chapter.

If you want to look around, explore slowlygoldenstore.com.
Steph x