Green Times' writer Christabelle Tani catches up with Kirstie Morris:

GT: What was your first reaction to finding out you were to be in Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2010?

Kirstie: I applied for it and I just remember getting the phone call, I was sitting on my couch and I started screaming and jumping up and down, a lot of girly screaming that caused my mum to wonder what was going on.

GT: How did you prepare for the show?

Kirstie: I just got done doing New Orleans Fashion Week and this was three weeks away so I was well-prepared from that, but for this show I must have sown on about 300 buttons myself!

GT: How did you react to finding out you were in New Orleans fashion week? I understand a talent scout found your website?

Kirstie: Yes, an international talent scout found my website but I think it was actually my photographer who told a few people about me, networking is very important and even if you’re tired and it’s been a long day you just have to do it because that’s how it is, it’s very important.

GT: Why did you decide to become a fashion designer at that age? That’s so young, you’re 19 right now and this was a year ago, I couldn’t imagine doing that so young, it must take a lot of guts!

Kirstie: Well, up until the end of Year 11, I was planning on studying law, but I just freaked out about it, the thought of studying it for 4 years, and realized it wasn’t what I really wanted to do.

GT: What inspired you to use these materials?

Kirstie: I found them through my supplier, I use mainly hand-woven silk dupioni, the colours just spoke to me—they’re royal colours inspired by the Borgis, and I like to think they’re enigmatic. I come up with a whole story in my head when I design and so the purple silk signifies royalty and the gold signifies riches and the black is because one of the characters, where she comes from, all they wear is black.

GT: Are these materials harder to work with than less eco-friendly ones?

Kirstie: The silk dupioni because it’s hand-woven has short fibres that fray when cut, but the outcome is just very beautiful. What you don’t get from machine-made clothing is this texture.

Sidenote: silk dupioni is also known as raw silk—the threads are not conventionally ‘perfect’ which gives the fabric a bit of raised fabric texture. Kirstie’s model adequately names it ‘the crinkle effect’.

GT: What advice would you give to aspiring green fashion designers?

Kirstie: I guess it would be that you’ve got to give it a go. Even if you try and you fail at least you tried, otherwise you’ll always wonder ‘what if’, you have to give it your best shot. The fear of failure is always overwhelming but it’s my dream, it’s what I love and spend hours and days doing, I can’t give up.

Sidenote: Preach it, sister!

GT: The hand-woven silk is good because it reduces your carbon footprint by using human energy versus electricity—do you find that the result is better than with a machine?

Kirstie: They have pedals that they use to power the machine and one-woman makes something like 4 meters a day. It’s natural yarn-dyed silk as opposed to dunking it in dye after it’s made, and it’s made in Bangalore.

Sidenote: Yarn-dyed silk projects different levels of sheen produced by the reflective nature of each yarn. This process is more expensive because fabric is dyed in the yarn stage, not as a whole sheet, which would be cheaper.

GT: How would you describe your line?

Kirstie: Well my motto is simplicity, elegance and allure. I like elegance because recently fashion has been way too sexy; I like to just pick what I want to show so there’s a little mystery. It’s dark, alluring, edgy, but wearable. When I watch fashion shows I think wow that’s beautiful and it’ll have ruffles and things but then I sort of go, but where could I wear that to? I want it to be stuff any girl could wear.

GT: Take me to the beginning and tell me how your line and label got started.

Kirstie: For this line, I read about the Borgia family in a book and was inspired by that, I’m a big history buff. I was 18 months into a two and a half year course and my teachers said that I wouldn’t be anything more than a seamstress, so I decided to just go and do it on my own, because I’m the type of person that when I’m told I can’t do something, I’ll do it just to prove that I can.

GT: Who is your customer? Who does your clothing cater to?

Kirstie: 18-35 year-old career-driven women, everything sits at the waist with my skirts and they’re covered up but sexy enough that you can go to work and then go out for drinks afterwards without having to change.

GT: Tell me about one of your pieces!

Kirstie then shows me a military and men’s suit-inspired jacket that is popular with women and even men! The yarn-dye gives a yellow jacket the sheen created from mixed green yarns, and the purple pieces are fused with pink yarns for the same effect.

GT: You grew up in Canberra, what was that like for you?

Kirstie: Actually I only recently moved to Canberra, I grew up in Townsville. It’s quite hard to make it in the fashion industry from there, but there is a Fashion Bash competition—actually, I should apply for that!

GT: How did your teachers telling you that you wouldn’t be more than a seamstress and then you now achieving obvious success—how does that affect your perspective on what you do?

Kirstie: Well I always knew that the fashion industry was cut-throat, it’s a hard industry. It’s not personal it’s just how the industry is. I guess you need a backbone of steel and you can’t let every single person who tells you they hate it get you down.

GT: What’s your next project going to be?

Kirstie: Boston Fashion Week is coming up in September and I have to start thinking about my next collection!

GT: How would you like to be remembered?

Kirstie: I want people to think that my clothes are classy and elegant and not “skanky”. It’s just because being young doesn’t mean you have to have everything hanging out there, pick what you want to show.