Australian fashion designer, Emma O’Rourke (right), is set to take on Vancouver Fashion Week this September.
How do you pursue a successful career in fashion design?
Well, according to emerging fashion designer Emma O’Rourke, if you’re prepared to work tirelessly and tenaciously with minimal breaks, back yourself and always stay educated, you’re probably on to a winning wicket. We should also add (although Emma was too modest to do so herself) that a successful career in fashion design requires some serious, serious talent.
O’Rourke, a twenty-six year-old Canberra local, has recently been picked to show her designs at Vancouver Fashion Week this September. For the past few months she’s been furiously pulling it all together– working late nights on her collection while maintaining a full-time job, working tech-side at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. She’s one busy woman.
Thankfully, she was able to free up some time to speak with us about her imminent trip, her source of inspiration, and her hopes for industry change:
Congratulations on the success of The Label and being picked to show at Vancouver Fashion week.
Can you tell me how it all came about?
I received an email saying that I’d been picked — I don’t know what the scouting process was exactly but I was really excited to be chosen. At the same time, fashion shows can be a risky business and requires a big commitment. But I’m a risk adverse person and decided to just back myself and go for it.
Do you know what to expect with Fashion Week?
I’m going to need to put in my all, that’s the only thing I know for sure. I’m showing on the second day. I’ll get an hour of rehearsals, and then hopefully be lining up some shoots with the photographers over there and hanging out with some of the models. I really want to meet people, talk to other designers and see how they’re handling the experience as well. It’s not every day you get to go overseas or do something like this, so I just need to take in as much as I can and not to be isolated.
What originally pushed you to pursue a career in fashion design?
I was working in the public service and I really thought that fashion was impractical. It’s a high risk industry, the retention rate in a fashion degree is horrible and I was just really nervous. But I was lucky I had a really supportive boss and family and friends. I just decided to go for it and once I had, I knew that I was passionate about it.
At the same time, I started to learn a lot about the pitfalls of the industry–slave labour and environmental effects– it’s a damaging industry and it’s huge. I don’t think people realise how big the fashion industry is. How many women it employs, how many children it unfortunately employs
So I felt like, if I was really passionate about this and passionate about bringing on change, then it was something that I needed to pursue. And, if I could somehow make a difference and be a source of good where there’s a lot of bad, then I really needed to keep at it.
Is that the greatest source of your inspiration, driving change in fashion?
I think it is in some ways. I mean my designs are not inspired by nature. In terms of the look of the garment I don’t design it so it looks like something ethical. I want people to buy my clothes because they connect with it visually but I definitely think it’s an added bonus if they believe in the ethical side of it and want to wear something that doesn’t impact the earth. I think that clothing is meant to make people feel good, it’s meant to make people walk a bit taller.
How would you describe your designs?
Very minimal. I design using a process called minimal waste, I work with barely any scrap fabric—a 10cm piece per garment usually. What this means, is that you don’t have waste that goes to landfill. My aesthetic is that I want things to fit the body, I want the person to be seen underneath the garment and I have a range of loose fitting and tighter garments that people can identify with. In terms of colour—my style is again, minimal. I want people to be able to match one piece with another and add their own little take.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned since starting ‘The Label’?
You can really achieve more than you think you can. At the start, it’s easy to doubt yourself a lot or think you can’t work that hard. But you can. You don’t need to have any magical powers or anything, you just need to keep looking at that goal and keep working for it.
What are your next steps after Fashion Week?
My next steps will be to try and knuckle down on the business side. Fashion week is really, really exciting from an outside point of view, and there’s a lot that goes into the backend of that. But after that I’m only a one-man-band, so I need to try and figure out the future prospects and how I’m going to configure my brand.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?
I would definitely like to be doing this and only this. I think that I’d like more time to investigate new fabrics, new ways to manufacture my clothes. I’d also like to bring more people on board, but do it in an ethical way. I’m not against manufacturing overseas but if I’m going to do it, I’d want to give my employees a great wage, give them an environment where they are as lucky as I am right now. I’d love to give that opportunity to people that don’t have it.
What advice would you give to other young designers?
Firstly, try and stay educated. Fashion isn’t just about aesthetics as much as we’d like it to be. Secondly, believe in yourself. If you’re not going to back yourself don’t expect someone else to do it. You need to put in those hard yards to make it happen.
