Trelise Cooper robbery: Two people arrested after a robbery at the designer’s Epsom facility

Two people have been arrested for a theft of $ 500,000 worth of clothing from the fashion company Trelise Cooper.

A large quantity of clothing was seized in last month’s heist of the company’s Epsom business premise in Auckland.

Police today executed a search warrant in central Auckland and arrested two people allegedly responsible.

Police also say Trelise Cooper will recover much of the clothing she took.

A 41-year-old man has been charged with theft and a 45-year-old woman has been charged with receiving stolen property. They are due in court tomorrow.

The high-end fashion company, owned by Dame Trelise Cooper, was stripped of clothing worth approximately $ 500,000 in the theft.

“A lone perch is all that remains,” Cooper posted on social media after the incident.

“Over the weekend our styling room was robbed and our entire Spring ’21 and Summer ’21 sample collection for Trelise Cooper, Cooper, Coop and Curate was stolen, along with several of our one-of-a-kind couture pieces. They were lost. 1800 samples.

Cooper said the thieves broke into the styling room through a vent in an electrical room. Then they emptied the shoe bags and left them scattered on the floor to use the bags to carry the clothes.

“I feel violated. I feel bad for my staff. We have taken it as a kick in the stomach,” she said.

Cooper said one of the graces that saved her is that she’s working on a new collection and of the two stolen collections, the spring one was being delivered to retailers and the summer one was in the making.

However, the two collections are a “working tool for us” and are used for charity shows, events like the Melbourne Cup and Riccarton races, and magazine photo shoots.

“These clothes are going to be hard for someone to sell. They are all size 8 and that’s a lot of size 8 to flood a market,” Cooper said, saying the clothes don’t have ‘care’ labels and are not in stores yet. . , which makes them easily identifiable.

Cooper said it was the first time his Epsom headquarters had been robbed in 25 years, although someone tried unsuccessfully to break into the building 14 years ago.