When do you feel the most alive and wild?
Anytime I’m in the ocean. I am an ocean lover and an action girl. I love to walk or run along the beach in the early mornings or after work in the summer — it’s the perfect way to finish the day. In my down time and on holidays you will find me camping, surfing, diving and fishing.
Talk us through the moment you decided to create your beautiful clothing brand, Humidity Lifestyle?
After a lifetime of working with major brands and gaining a wealth of knowledge, plucking up the courage to create my own brand was the next step. I was forever the frustrated designer working with other brands, but I am glad I didn’t rush the process and we owe a lot of our success to those early learning days. It takes a long time to understand both sides of the equation because design and sales need to link up in order to be successful. It is one thing to design, but another thing for it to sell and pay the bills.
The hubby and I decided to pack up the kids and make a lifestyle change and move to the beautiful Margaret River region. It’s a very special, inspiring place and due to the lifestyle change, I noticed a major gap in the market in lifestyle pieces and so the story began.
What influences your designs, textures and colours?
The brand is not driven by the latest fashion trends. We are definitely influenced by trends, however our primary focus is our customers’ lifestyle choices and what they like to wear.
We research and design colours and then adapt versions of them to our brand. For example, if green is the colour of the season, we will tend to work with versions like sage and khaki and leave bright green to the fast fashion brands.
We absolutely love soft natural fibres and next summer we will introduce our organic cotton collection. The essence of the brand is lifestyle pieces — sustainable designs in natural fibres that you will reach for over and over. And also quality and comfort — we make pieces that are easy to work or play in.
The stunning ocean and rural landscapes we are surrounded by are a huge inspiration for the brand.
What are you doing to minimise the environmental impact of Humidity Lifestyle?
Almost all of our stock is packaged in corn starch bags, which break down with no nasties. When we first started using these environmentally-friendly bags, they cost approximately five to six cents a bag (compared to a poly bag that costs nothing). The prices are rising quickly, as there are a few makers with a captive market and they are now up to 17 cents a bag.
We also proactively choose sustainable fibres and recycled materials with low impact to the environment where possible and continue to educate and encourage our makers to research and implement more sustainable approaches.
There is always room for improvement and in a rapidly changing world, this is a major focus. The most difficult part is educating the makers and opening their eyes to a different method and pushing them to assist you to try to shape a better world. Change is good, more difficult in the short term, but definitely worth the effort — we are on it!
Humidity Lifestyle is an indent brand, which means our stockists must place their orders a season in advance and choose styles and colours that are right for their customer and the right amount of stock for their store. Due to pre-orders, we do not need to guess and buy endless amounts of stock in colours and quantities that our stockists may not require. We often sell out of styles very early in the season and this is the way it will remain. Less is better for the environment.
What’s next for Humidity Lifestyle?
We are steady and careful planners, so there is no rush to conquer the world. We are dreamers and designers, so there is always lots going on upstairs — even in our downtime. We do have plans to introduce a lifestyle men’s collection; with a houseful of fellas, boyfriends and brothers in the design office, the pressure is on!
The brand is currently only available in Australia and New Zealand, however we intend to grow the brand globally, but only with a well-planned, sustainable approach. We will continue to refine and reshape our business for the future world.
For more, visit humiditylifestyle.com or @humiditylifestyle on Instagram
