Brand Profiles

Lois Hazel was launched March 2015 and is committed to sustainable and ethical practices. Offering 100% transparency on sourcing and production for each element of their garments with all craftsmanship completed either in house or by a network of local seamstresses.

Lois Hazel has been featured on VAMFF’s Off site Runway series, Discovery Runway presented by I-d Magazine and their Premium runway series presented by Who What Wear. They were also Announced as a 2017 Finalist for the National Designer Award presented by David Jones supported by Harpers BAZAAR.

Each collection incorporates dead stock, organic and traceable fabrics to ensure they are doing what they can to minimise waste as well as continue their commitment to a more sustainable industry. Considered design details offer multifunctional wardrobe pieces that feel luxurious and comfortable, taking the Lois Hazel women through seasons, climates and style pursuits.

 

image : Anastasiia Gerak

L O I S   H   M C G R U E R - F R A S E R 

March, 2015 Lois McGruer-Fraser was on the cusp of launching her womenswear label into the world. The desire to involve herself in a fashion industry where transparency was not yet custom didn't interest the aspirational RMIT Honors graduate, so she decided to do one thing, Be Honest.

With her immersive international experience through internships with Marchesa in NYC, Iris Van Herpen, ByBorre & Marianne Kemp in Amsterdam along with a Semester in France at the Paris American Academy, Lois was ready to create a brand that felt deeply emotional and connected to its surroundings, yet completely wearable.

Lois has been a trusted voice on panel discussions with regard to sustainability and ethical practices in the fashion industry. She has spoken at the NGV during their house of Dior Friday nights program, VAMFF’s fashion industry forums, MFW’s Industry sessions and a frequent voice at RMIT.

 

 

 

 

 

keegan is a Melbourne made Women’s clothing label valuing originality, quality & slow fashion. Relaxed tailoring, minimalist silhouettes & statement hardware form Keegan’s trademark aesthetic. Comfort, style and versatility are integral to each Keegan design.

Launching in 2013, the label has shown 16 collections & has a retail store located in Fitzroy North.

MADE IN AUSTRALIA

keegan uses only local manufacturing, favouring the use of natural fibres to produce quality timeless pieces. Our garments are predominantly manufactured in-house & our busy studio is completely open for public viewing within our retail space. This grants the customer complete access to the evolution of each garment, from design, pattern making & sewing, through to finished garment. In doing so, we aim to forge a more meaningful relationship between customer, maker & product. When our studio is busy, we occasionally outsource production work to an independent factory within Melbourne. Our button-holing, eyeleting & laser cutting are outsourced within Australia.

SLOW FASHION

Manufacturing predominantly in-house means we can produce in small runs, to meet demand, rather than mass producing each product. Our garments are designed with longevity in mind, from the timeless cut & aesthetic, to the way each piece is constructed.

Each year we produce a tran-seasonal collection, designed for layering & year-round wear.

Waste reduction is important to us, therefore we mostly use bio-degradable materials & during cutting, all usable off-cuts are collected & stored for future projects, or donated. Any pattern-making paper offcuts are collected and composted. We also use compostable mailing satchels for 90% of our online orders.

We love celebrating Australian design and stock a careful selection of local jewellery & footwear labels in store.

Our knitwear is produced through a collaboration with knitter Tanja Kozub. Each piece is hand crafted in her Mornington Peninsula studio in small numbers & hand delivered to our store. Many of the yarns used to create the garments are locally sourced, particularly the Alpaca, which is farmed and spun nearby on the Peninsula.

 

 

Wolf & Mishka is a Melbourne-based design label passionate about creating unique hand illustrated printed fashion, accessories and jewellery.

Our approach when designing and producing each collection is slow, with small local production runs while staying waste conscious. We think very seriously about the amount of fabric we order, print and how many styles are made. Meaning we don’t overproduce, instead, our focus is on quality, not quantity while designing for transeasonal and wardrobe mainstays as opposed to fast, trend-driven fashion. 

Wolf & Mishka pieces are made with love, are unique and designed to be treasured for years to come. We hope you find your must-have item; when you do, you’ll know you’re one of a small group of people in the world who has it.

Made In Melbourne

Slow Fashion

Did you know fast fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world?
Our approach when designing and producing each collection is slow, with small production runs while staying waste conscious.

We think very seriously about the amount of fabric we order, print and how many styles are made. In some cases, this could be only 10 in total!

This helps in the fight to prevent large amounts of unwanted textiles being dumped into landfill, and ensures your item stays one of a kind.

Recycle. Re-use.

Our intention when producing all garments is not to waste anything!

We try to use every scrap of fabric in production. We often use deadstock and end-of-the-roll fabrics that other, larger producers have left unused, allowing us to divert material from landfill, giving them a new life and reducing environmental impacts.
Our larger scrap pieces of fabric are saved for later ranges, using them for trims, binding and or facings. And smaller scrap pieces are collected and given to a local Thornbury kindergarten and local Melbourne craft/sewing workshop.

Transparency

We endeavour to always keep bringing you more about our brand, who makes our garments, where our fabrics are bought and printed, and where our fabric scraps go for continued craft and educational use.

Currently we are trying to grow this area, so if you are a school, craft school, sewing school etc, please get in touch we would love to hear from you!

Aiming for a healthier fashion industry is top of our list!

Make sure you follow us to find out what sustainable materials we're switching to, and what procedures we endeavour to adopt for our business in order to reduce our carbon footprint. It's important we share this with our customers, and try to encourage others to support the make small, shop small community.

 

Keeping It Local

We ❤︎ to support local businesses, and that’s why all elements of our supply chain, from pattern makers to graders, cutters and makers, are right here in Melbourne.

We have strong personal relationships with our makers, and by taking a hands-on approach we can ensure the quality and integrity of our garments. It also means we can be certain all our production practices are ethical.

W & M Prints

All our prints are exclusive and designed in-house by designer and owner, Natalia!

Our Fabrics & Trims

It is important to us that our fabrics come from trusted sources.

That’s why we purchase our fabrics through Australian textile agents, which allows us to support local businesses and the fashion industry here in Australia.

Aside from our printed fabrics which are designed in house and printed using GOTS, all our plain fabrics are deadstock fabric. Meaning fabric that has been left over by larger companies, often only having small amounts left on the roll, which is perfect for us as we only do small production runs.

We limit the use of unnatural fabrics such as polyester, acrylic and nylon. Instead, we focus on natural fabrics such as linen, cotton and silk, and also use regenerated wood fibres, which are much more environmentally friendly, such as Tencel and viscose.

Last year we also introduced a 100% Organic Cotton fabric, which uses Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) approved water-based inks and dyes.

We also use all recycled hemp and Forthorn recycled poly buttons in production.

 

 

SEASIDE TONES

A u s t r a l i a

 

Our Story

Seaside Tones, following great success in Europe, is coming to Australia. The label was established in 2016 by creative duo Anna and Michal Rutko - photographers, influencers and founders of lifestyle blog: www.mammamija.pl

Seaside Tones Australia is a proudly family owned and operated business.

Style 

Seaside Tones delivers a unique collection of minimalist and simple wardrobe items in a neutral colour palette. All pieces are designed by Anna.

Our linen is pre washed which means it is soft and drapes beautifully.

 

Quality

Seaside Tones Australia is proud to present this modern collection with a strong focus on comfort.

All pieces are ethically and consciously made in Poland. At the heart of the label is the highest quality GOTS certified pure Polish linen, renowned all over the world. All fabrics are organic, coloured without harmful chemicals and produced in safe and fair conditions.

  

 

Two sisters who imagine a world without waste. We're finding new ways of making and using beautiful things that are regenerative by design. 

Seljak Brand launched in March 2016 and has since worked towards accelerating the transition towards a more circular economy. We work with Australia’s oldest mill in Tasmania and a 92-year-old weaving mill in Lithuania to weave recycled wool blankets that are closed loop. 

The blankets are made from a minimum of 70% recycled merino or lambswool and a 30% blend of other fibres (mohair, cotton and alpaca) and poly for strength. Wool is a natural fibre that is incredibly hard to replicate – it’s a renewable resource, it is odour and stain resistant, antibacterial, lightweight, breathable and insulating.  

After a blanket has enjoyed a long, adventurous life we’ll collect it free of charge using a carbon neutral courier service. Back at the mill, we’ll shred it and spin it into new yarn to make future blankets. This circular model allows us to divert waste from landfill and create luxurious and useful blankets.

OUR IMPACT

Since 2016: 

  • We've diverted 3,390kg of textiles waste from landfill 
  • We’ve donated 184 blankets to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne
  • Numerous Australians have been exposed to closed loop business practices thanks to the press we've received 
  • We've crowdfunded $32,000 to help fund the research and development of using other businesses' textile waste to make more blankets – you can check out our progress with local Sydney label Citizen Wolf’s offcuts here.
  • We’ve been awarded $30,000 in funding from Macquarie Group to continue development of textiles waste to resource products. 
  • We were awarded The Design Files' Sustainability Design Award in 2019. 

For every ten blankets sold, Seljak Brand donates one to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) in Melbourne where asylum seekers are made to feel welcome, safe and supported. Providing job training, access to health services and legal advice, as well as food and household goods (and warm blankets!), ASRC offers the support and opportunities asylum seekers need to live independently. Our grandparents were refugees from Slovenia and we want to support asylum seekers making a new home in Australia. 

    OUR STORY

    As close friends we knew we’d collaborate. It was a love of Australian resources that drew Karina home from her work in local food production in Brooklyn, New York. Trained in fashion design, she’d become acutely aware of the waste in the manufacturing world. Sam's expertise was grounded in social entrepreneurship and sustainability having started multiple community-driven initiatives in Brisbane (No Lights No Lycra Brisbane and The Box art gallery) and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia for several years.

    Inspired by the resourceful and mutually beneficial practices we  saw sprouting up all around us, we poured our time into understanding the circular economy and closed loop methodologies. Ultimately, we wanted to test the new paradigm ourselves, where things are built to last and be renewed. 

    Our respect for Australian wool lead us to the oldest weaving mill in Australia, which retains all of its production offcuts for future use. Using these offcuts to make blankets, we incorporated a closed loop system that uses the blankets for re-manufacture at the end of their life. And Seljak Brand was born...

     

    MEG WATSON

    I’m Meg from Meg Watson Jewellery, a brand of jewellery that dives deep beyond fashion and brings beautifully handcrafted pieces that are uniquely designed to tell a story, evoke an emotion and celebrate creativity.

    I love to create jewellery that women connect with, and when worn, make them feel as special and as beautifully unique as they are.  For me, jewellery is not something that should be worn to fit in, but something to express ones individually and worthiness to stand out and shine.

    Each of my pieces are made with an intention of supporting slow fashion, creating something to treasure and last a lifetime, therefore I choose to use the highest quality materials and silversmith techniques to ensure that only exceptional lasting jewellery moves from my hands to yours. I create small batch collections that are ready to wear, and also love working 1:1 with clients to develop a piece that truly represents them and tells their story.