So much so that the former employee has trademarked the slogan in case it is snaffled by another chocolate company.
Wearing a Chocolate Queen T-shirt in the small fashion boutique Notion behind her Musselburgh home yesterday, Ms Fairley said it had always been a dream to have that as the theme of a business.
And she is not the only member of chocolate royalty in the city; she is among a group of former Cadbury’s employees, known as the Chocolate Kings and Queens — “because we’re always very, very proud of where we came from” — who gather weekly to raise money for charity.
Ms Fairley said she had a longtime passion for New Zealand designer fashion and started investigating opening a space while she was still at the chocolate factory.
But citing high shop rents in George St, she said she could not see how it would work while she was also breaking into the market, which meant she had gone online and created a space where people could book appointments to visit.
She started with New Zealand and emerging designers and was thrilled to pay homage to her Northern Ireland roots by being the only New Zealand stockist of textiles designer Hope Macaulay, she said.
The eponymous brand has featured in publications including Vogue, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair and The New York Times and has adorned celebrities such as Gigi Hadid, Naomi Osaka and Jennifer Hudson.
Founded on the North Coast of Northern Ireland, the slow fashion brand began as its founder knitted alone in her bedroom and expanded into a team of 20 knitters working from home across Northern Island.
The label — which has more than 500,000 followers on Instagram — is best known for its signature statement piece, the Colossal Knit Cardigan.
For Ms Fairley, who is half-Kiwi and half-Northern Irish and also focused on ethical and sustainable brands, it is an ideal collaboration.
She said while it had been a hard road establishing Notion — she also worked full-time in the public service sector — and she had faced some knockers, she was proud to have been a factory worker and then made the foray into fashion.
