Meet the Maker – Dion Nash from Triumph and Disaster

Name: Dion Nash
Brand: Triumph & Disaster
Job Title: Founder – general dogs body
Location: Auckland , New Zealand
Instagram @triumphanddisaster

1/ What did you want to be when you grew up?

A New Zealand Cricketer

2/ When and what was the moment that prompted you to start your own brand?

I was meeting my boss in Brooklyn, New York, he was asking me to move to London to live and run a vodka brand – a young guy at the table next to us pulled out a tube of women’s moisturiser and started applying it to his hands and face – somehow the combination of those two things created an epiphany, that I needed to quit my job and make a range of skincare.

3/ In 3 words, describe your occupation.

Skincare foundry New Zealand

4/ What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Be your own best coach.

5/ What is your favourite creative outlet to get the juices flowing?

Negroni’s – but never more than three : )

6/ Where do you see yourself and the brand in 10 years time?

Flagship stores in New York, London, Sydney – globally recognised for great products, honesty and caring about our customers and the planet. Part of an Awesome team having heaps of fun.

7/ If you could invite any 5 celebrities to dinner, who would be on the guest list?

Imran Kahn, Matt Damon, Jay Z, David Bowie & Kate Moss.

8/ What was the last rule you broke?

1 Negroni, 2 Negroni, 3 Negroni, FLoor

9/ Do you have any hidden talents?

I play guitar – although it has been sense that I have a unique sense of timing.

10/ What was the last movie you saw and was it any good?

Tomorrowland (with the kids) – the kids thought it was bombastic hollywood nonsense but I quite enjoyed it : )

When Dion was 13 years of age his father gave him a framed poem called ‘IF’ by Rudyard Kipling. It was at a time when father and son were ‘butting heads’ so to speak so the poem was promptly defaced, graffitied over and thrown in a bottom drawer… but never thrown away.

The poem is advice from a father to his son on how to be a man. It is about humility, honour, risk and reward. More than two decades later when the seed of an idea for a range of grooming products was forming, it was values like these that he had in mind. Values that would help mould a brand capable of reminding us that acts of ritual and preparation are worthy endeavours and that being well groomed is something of which to be proud.

So when a tattered old poem that his dad had given him years before was uncovered in the bottom of an old chest and he read the line, ‘if you can meet with Triumph & Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same’ , well, the deal was done and the brand was born.

When launching Triumph & Disaster they made the decision that they would not call themselves 100% Natural. They recognise that defining products as “natural” in any industry can be a stretch. It’s not that they didn’t start out with ‘Natural’ in their heads however. Their philosophy falls back on science to combine the best of nature to produce naturally derived but scientifically engineered products that work.

Using local indigenous ingredients such as Horopito oil and Ponga fern extract blended with scientifically proven and natural ingredients from around the globe, such as clay from Australia, Jojoba extract from Mexico and Tamanu oil from Polynesia.

They stand by their belief that the future of sustainable business is a path of integrity and honesty and that customers deserve at least this much from the brands they support.

We want to know the beat of your drum…

It’s a mess, ain’t it sherriff! By Dion Nash

An eclectic mix of peaks and troughs, fitted with rifts and rhymes to sooth the wary traveller, best played on a summers day whilst drinking a Negroni or a glass of wine.

Love is blindness – Jack White