FLOAT ON
Sarah-Jane Clarke talks exclusively to Vogue as she re-emerges onto the fashion scene, her first foray since departing Sass & Bide.
Sarah-Jane Clarke has re-emerged onto the fashion scene, her first foray since departing Sass & Bide. She talks exclusively to Vogue about her new eponymous label and a meditative new state. By Alice Birrell.
Don’t expect a big bang. Sequels, comebacks, returns – all play out in most industries as a hype grab often with as much fizzle as the initial pop. Sarah-Jane Clarke, though, isn’t the standard remake, and so had no need to heed the usual cautions. “I know some people say I am crazy going back into fashion,” she says from her studio space in Sydney. “But I think I am seeing this as a bigger thing than just fashion.”
Four years on from her departure from Sass & Bide, a simultaneous leave-taking with co-founder and close friend Heidi Middleton, Clarke is wading back in with a debut C collection under her own name. It’s understandable that some might puzzle at it. In a world in which she G has made such a marked success and an impact that still echoes on today, the temptation to lean out, look back and feel satisfied surely would be irresistible. “It’s not that it’s giving me anything more,” she concedes on her return to the design table. She pauses, then adds: “It’s a desire to create, and a desire to connect with other like-minded people.”
Thank goodness for the creative itch. Far from bombarding us with a wash of new product, Clarke is authoring a next chapter in which she slips back into our wardrobes with an artful flutter of linen, a billow of a muted cactus-green sleeve and a swish of burnt brûlée silk dupion. In fact, the only explosion here is an unfurling of pillowy sleeves – the balloon returns on throw-on tunics, one-shoulder tops and cover-ups that genuinely could teeter from bar to boat, hold the marketing spin. “It’s three for one!” she says, qualifying: “You could probably even wear some of the pieces to bed, actually.”
Her mien is value pieces that sit firmly in resort wear but aren’t so precious they can’t be thrown on a whim into a suitcase. In fact, they’re made to. “I spent a long time travelling the world for work and pleasure,” she says of the sabbatical that gave her three years of exploring, including favourite boltholes in Morocco and Italy, before the idea germinated for Sarah-Jane Clarke. “I just felt like I wanted to arrive at my destinations feeling stylish, and the clothes I wanted to wear had to be comfortable, practical, versatile and they had to travel well.” The gap she spotted was for luxurious, easy-to-wear pieces made from natural fibres.
Her clarity of vision she owes also from stepping over to the other side. “Getting away from the industry allowed me to work out how I had evolved and what I now stood for, and, interestingly, I also became a consumer for the first time,” she says. Going from designer to shopper, Clarke was surprised by the sheer glut of product presented to women and the feeling of being pressured to buy. “And the constant bombardment of marketing made me feel that I wasn’t relevant if I wasn’t in the latest pieces,” she recounts. “It didn’t sit right with me, because it encourages constant consumerism.”
Instead the label will release collections only twice a year, and will be direct to consumer in the main part, and be tightly edited so she can work at her own pace. “The more traditional cycle is so fast and furious. Designers burn out and the finished product doesn’t get the love it deserves. I’ve seen first-hand how much time and effort and energy
and money goes into each design and then they have a shop life of about six weeks … it just seems crazy that the process is not honoured more.”
Her debut 20-piece collection offers shorts, tops, dresses, cover-ups and pants. She is not tempted to introduce unnecessary categories to fit with conventional ideas that a fashion label should cover every occasion in life, only increasing the environmental strain. “There is no excess product to fill a range,” says Clarke. “I think people have too much choice. Educating people on the impact of their purchases is key.” The colour palette is also a boiling down, distilled into the shades that transport you somewhere hot. “You know when you are on holidays and you hang your pieces outside and they get that nice sort of sun-bleached look to them?” she says of driftwood whites, a light mulberry and a faded floral, a love-worn version of a piece of haberdashery she found rummaging through Clignancourt flea market in Paris.
Everything this time has been made in Australia, although from next collection artisans around the world will also contribute. She aims to keep the supply chain transparent as part of an ongoing commitment to ethical industry practice. In 2012, Clarke and Middleton, at Sass & Bide, worked with the UN’s International Trade Centre, alongside Stella McCartney and Ilaria Venturini Fendi, to give paid work to marginalised women in African communities. “I want to take care of the people I am working with especially those making the garments,” she says. “I like the fact that I know my maker.”
On her travels she pockets cards from artisans who catch her eye, like the women in India who created beading for her follow-up collection. There are also collaborations in the works with Australian milliner Jonathan Howard, of Hatmaker, and Maria La Rosa, the Italian manufacturer known for luxurious socks and bags. A family-run business, they work by hand on antique Italian looms with an emphasis on natural fibres. With them she will produce a small selection of beach pouches and cashmere travel socks to expand on the clothing. The aim is to evolve into a travel concept store selling one-off found objects from her journeys, such as vintage suitcases, ceramics and candles.
That global mindedness was what gave Sass & Bide cut through after the two school friends from Brisbane began selling jeans at Bondi markets in 1999. Youthful guts underpinned their bowerbird sensibilities and when
I had such a dream ride with Heidi … however, I felt at this stage of life I really wanted to explore and express my individual creative energy”
Clarke departed she evidently left military flourishes, harnesses, feathers and sequins behind. The biggest difference now is that she’s doing it on her own. “Going solo is much more intimidating and at times I feel vulnerable,” she admits. “Comparisons will be made.” She also appreciates though that it’s a moment of which to take full advantage. “I had such a dream ride with Heidi; we were amazing collaborators as well as being best friends. However, I felt at this stage of life I really wanted to explore and express my individual creative energy.”
A mother of three, Clarke is slowing down generally, taking more holidays – she recently wore a sweeping white piece from the collection on a family expedition to the Kimberley – and is making considered choices. “I make more of an effort to be in control of the business, rather than the business controlling me. Look, famous last words,” she says with a laugh. “But I am going to try.” If she’s found her own identity, then the clothes are an expression of her comfort with it. “There is so much stress in the world,” she says. “I’ve always believed in the transformative power of fashion – how it makes us feel. This label is defined by the feeling of freedom. Maybe it’s a meditation for fashion.” It’s a mantra to go on with.