The opportunity in sustainable fashion:
“There’s a huge lack of awareness in fashion. Fashion designers are tactile, emotional, spiritual creatures and we do love nature—generally creators do. It’s the lack of awareness. I had Willow [another line,] for 10 years and I had no idea of the impact materials had. The fashion industry is the world’s second biggest polluter, besides oil. It’s the materials and the agricultural process—the insecticides and pesticides; the acids used turning the cellulose pulp into a thread and the runoff; it’s the chromium used in tanning leather; making nylon and polyester releases nitrous oxide into the atmosphere, which is five times more toxic than carbon dioxide and adds to the greenhouse effect. The possibility to be sustainable is out there. I’ve wanted that factory and business in Slovenia to expand their model in Australia and every country. There should be trawlers that go out and pick up the plastic in the ocean. There’s an enormous amount of plastic—it could be all the fabric for the future. Someone needs to do that.”
How Australia inspires and influences her:
“Australia really allows open windows, nature, trees, beautiful atmosphere. It doesn’t have everything, but it has the nature. I live surrounded by an oasis. If I didn’t live in nature, I’d go crazy.
“The Australian consumer is very savvy: she loves fashion. Considering the amount of people that there are in the country—we consume a lot of fashion. I think it’s a bright, great market. It’s competitive. For Australian designers, you’ve got to be able to have a really strong business in your own hometown before you’re going to have a global brand. If you can’t make it there, it’s dangerous.”
The missed opportunity that everyone in fashion needs to pay attention to:
“I honestly don’t even know if there is a handful of brands, if that, that are actually sourcing consciously at the designer level. There are sustainable undies and yogi gear, but fashion? It’s a miss. To create something sustainable is one thing, but to create something people actually want to wear? That’s the hard thing.”