Country: Australia What: Swimwear | For: Women | Style: Fun, Ethical | Category: Emerging Brand
Hey hey! We are both true blue locals right now.
But it hasn’t always been that way. Em was born and grew up in Bellingen. Olly is a little confused with her nationality as she was born and grew up in Siberia (Russia), lived in Dubai (UAE) for over 8 years, then for a little while in Nairobi (Kenya) and two years ago has finally found her personal paradise here in Coffs Harbour.
We met two years ago at church. Em was one of the first people Olly met moving to Coffs and it was almost instant friendship after the discovery of our mutual love for Mexican food and travelling.
As mentioned, our favourite thing after food (and our husbands) is travel. Em has a little boy Phoenix, so we went travelling together with our husbands and Phoenix to Singapore and Vietnam.
We had the best time while eating our way through Asia! But it was down at the beach in Vietnam where we saw a lot of plastics littering the shore and our business idea was born.
Yes and no.
Em had worked as a model in the fashion industry for many years and travelled around the world seeing the industry from that perspective.
Olly had worked as a cabin crew for Emirates Airline and was more of an observer of fashion globally for a number of years.
Em and Olly both worked for a successful fashion brand here in Coffs and learned the backstage of what it takes to run a business firsthand.
Living in this part of NSW we are spoilt for choice when it comes to pristine, uncrowded beaches, rivers and waterfalls. It’s a part of our Australian culture to spend lots and lots of time at the beach.
There is nothing better than salty skin, messy hair and sandy toes. We think that if you’re wearing shoes – you’re already overdressed
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Being kind to the environment and being kind to ourselves. These two are more connected than you would think. We gotta be more loving and accepting to who we are and the skin we’re in to be conscious of our environment and other people.
‘Eco-friendly’ is definitely a term that gets thrown around these days. It’s important to really dig deep and understand what it really entails. Spanning from the fabric that your clothing is made from, to the factories where the clothing is made.
It includes the way the fabrics are dyed, how the wastewater for the factory is handled (ensuring it’s treated and not polluting the environment), are the factory workers safe and getting paid a fair wage, is your clothing high quality or does it fall apart after a few wears, is the packing it comes in biodegradable or recyclable?
– We knew we wanted to do things better.
– We did not want to do things the easy way.
– We wanted to bring value on more levels than just ‘business sense’.
– We also think it’s almost a prerequisite for any new fashion brands to be mindful of how they are going to impact the environment and how the garments were made.
There is a quote that nothing is really free or cheap in fashion, someone somewhere is always paying for it – be it planet or people.
This resonates with us on so many levels.
Hey, let’s have some 5MIN-READ Brand Stories & Founders’s interviews!
We met Yana & Imke from Tizz&Tonic, a sustainable lingerie emerging label from Bremen in Germany. Limited collection underwear for conscious minds.
We met Igor, co-Founder of Many Mornings an accessory brand from Poland designing original mismatched socks! Because life is too short for boring socks!
We met Sofiane, co-Founder of Sobo Concept a responsible fashion, French Clothing brand designing sustainable basics and denims for men & women.
We met ME.LAND’s founder Frédéric Robert in a short sneaker 5-min read. ME.LAND is a french sneaker brand offering unique, arty, comfy unisex sneakers.