With her jet black hair, milk-bottle skin and eyes the shade of the sea at Whitby, Susie Bick could be the dictionary definition of gothic beauty. Add the fact that she married Nick Cave – a musician who loves all things macabre – in 1999 and the model has been a cult reference for all things at the darker end of fashion. By calling her new clothing label The Vampire’s Wife, then, you’d think everything was in order. Until you see the clothes.
Bick borrowed the name from an aborted book project of Cave’s but that is where the association with his gothic tendencies ends. The designs are full of jewel-like colours, inspired by the Russian ballet that Bick saw a few years ago, and have a sort of carefree, vaguely 50s summer-in-Capri feel. Hardly Winona in Beetlejuice, but the contrast is intentional – Bick is gently redressing certain misconceptions. “I love the name because it means whatever you want it to mean and has a certain tongue-in-cheek quality when you see the collection,” she says. “I have always worn summer dresses all year round.” After a capsule collection of dresses and skirts launches online in June, there will be a full collection, including knitwear and shirting for spring/summer 2016.
Bick has been, she says, “designing since the age of 10. I was always obsessed with clothes and making things. When skintight jeans came in, I altered my friends’ flares and got into trouble with everyone’s parents.” But this is, of course, a second career for Bick – who was something of a cult face on the modelling scene in the 90s. Never as “first name only” as the British models that followed her – Naomi, Kate – she preceded them with her own very individual look, working closely with Vivienne Westwood, David Bailey and Nick Knight. “I worked with Bailey for eight years straight practically, which was an amazing learning curve,” she says. “He finally stopped it because I was eternally late.” Bick says it was always the clothes that were her driving force – “I must have been, it kept me in the job for 27 years.” Unlike other models who were successful at the time, she hasn’t been tempted back to the catwalk, although “they wheel me out occasionally”.
The Vampire’s Wife is testament to the lessons she learned from nearly three decades in fashion. Bick proudly states that all fabrics come from England and, in true fashion-speak, says the price points will be “around Westwood Red Label” (that means around £300 to £800 to anyone else).
Her references for occasions to wear the clothes also belie a slightly more glamorous life than you or I. “I usually ask myself what I will wear to this event, or that one – like the Christmas service at school,” she says. “Or at the Baftas it was freezing. I want to be warm and glamorous.” Don’t we all?
