The two misconceptions about the job is that number one you sit down and draw pretty
pictures all day the second one is that you've got a fantastic wardrobe cause!
Often you are so busy making clothes for everybody else
that you just recycle the same old things for yourself.
Fashion design has always been a part of my life.
My label Elsie-Jean is the name of my two nannas.
One was a seamstress and the other has been doing made-to-measure all her life.
I used to dress up myself and my nannas dress stand when I was, whatever, knee
high to a grasshopper and I was making clothes for my Barbie doll as well.
It was always you know, Barbies not going to marry Ken its, or
she's getting changed now and now she's getting changed again.
So I guess it's always been part of my life.
I have a list of what I need to do for a day. Typically
it would involve going to at least two different places.
There is a lot of driving around you have to do so 24 hours generally isn't enough.
Was it one of the knits was it? The stretch knit? Yeah, yeah.
I think, to be a fashion designer, especially when you are first
starting out, it's really important you have to be a jack-of-all-trades.
You have to sort of marry the business side of
things with the artistic-ness of designing products.
The design part is probably more natural for me when you are dealing with fabrics.
Ahh you just look at them and say 'that would look
fantastic like this' or you just generally, when you
look at the fabric, think about how it would fall properly or the designs that you would do out of it.
But there's a lot more to it. You have to develop it. You can't
always make more just Avant Garde pieces that won't sell.
You always have to make them, really, as cheap as you
possibly can then they're cheap for the consumer as well.
Some manufacturers do the cut, make and trim themselves - so the
trim is just, like putting the tags on or sort of quality checks.
My manufacturer just sows and presses so I save
a lot of money by cutting the garments myself.
How you going? Hello
How's it been today? Really well - we've sold really well.
I'm part of a store called Merge Clothing at the Colonnade.
It was originally a concept store for new designers.
The events manager at the Colonnade came to our school and offered us the opportunity
straight out of collage so two weeks after we graduated we were in the store already.
Cause it's supposed to sit on an angle. Yeah. Yeah they look great.
We can pin that top bit down for you as well.
The public was really excited so they got behind
us - just really backed us from the beginning.
Because my designs are really original with the particular like an
architecture style print they sold very well right from the beginning.
So I just decided then that you know if this was what I was really
going to do I needed to put the money straight back into the business.
So in two months now we've got our one year anniversary.
Apart from Merge, I also supply to three other stores.
There's Varga Girl and Angel Hearts in the city and then there's Eros in Fremantle.
How you usually get into the stores - you can just what's called cold canvas.
You can just walk in and show them your range.
I studied a three year course at Tafe.
The third year is basically about your show and you spend six
month developing your final year range which is then paraded.
Our year was actually the first year to have a trade presentation as well.
So the industry could come and see the work of the graduates.
The industry here in Perth is really quite small and close knit so
doing the work experience gets you a lot of contacts really quickly.
We have people at Merge coming in from Sydney or Melbourne and just going 'oh my goodness,
do you supply anywhere over east?' So we just
have something that people over east don't offer.
I keep a filling cabinet with each stores invoices separately.
Also make a note in my diary when I expect those invoices to be paid.
So that way you keep track and make sure that people are paying you on time.
She was so desperate for it and just looked amazing in it.
The two main things you really want to do is wear your clothing and have business cards.
I think wearing your clothing around you are just
advertising the whole time. It's a free advertisement.
There's like another, a separate order.
I guess I've never aspired to be a Versace or anything
like that which is supplying all over the world.
But then again I never expected to be where I am now so in that way
I've never dreamt of doing it but I also realise it's possible.
So in five years' time I would love to be supplying
over east and just be respected in the industry.