I sometimes feel a little homesick for Australia, a country I have never actually lived in for any real length of time, but a place that has played a big part in my life and career. When I think of Australia I see big open skies, taste hot chocolate sipped on a boardwalk to the soundtrack of the ocean, feel crumpled linen shirts at the bottom of a sandy canvas bag and could replicate the presentation boards of images, colour samples and fabric swatches that I spent many a late night creating, sitting on the carpeted floor of a hotel room, jet lagged and on a deadline. If you are fortunate, you will have the privilege in life to work with maybe a handful of people with whom you share an understanding and a vision, a truly collaborative process that promotes creativity and makes you feel nostalgic for even the most hectic of times. My years working for the Australian lifestyle brand Country Road with Steve Bennett and Jane Parker are just that for me.
Recently I find myself talking a lot about the process of making, slowing things down, valuing materials, celebrating basic, traditional skills, understanding both the provenance and purpose of a product, and designing for its full life cycle. But these philosophies which I now apply to my work as creative consultant to the craft industry were not absorbed whilst knitting at my grandmother’s knee or borrowed from a bygone make do and mend generation but experienced in a fast-paced high street ready-to-wear retail brand, across continents, through factories, in the back of a cab and via fax machine. If that sounds unlikely, it’s because it is somewhat counter to the attitude of plenty of other high street and designer brands that I worked with in the 80s, 90s, and 00s, where growth for shareholders was valued above all else, and at the cost of processes, people, and planetary resources.