The women who walked away from fashion to find something more

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In The Devil Wears Prada, fictional magazine editor Miranda Priestly makes it clear that a life in fashion is the ultimate goal, saying: “Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us.”

So what happens when you no longer want fashion – or fashion no longer wants you back?

This year, Donatella Versace announced she was putting down her sketchpad, along with Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior, and Sabato De Sarno at Gucci. Some designers fade into a comfortable background cushioned by mega deals and payouts, such as Tom Ford who sold his fashion brand to Estée Lauder for $US2.3 billion ($3.5 billion) in 2022, and Donna Karan who sold her eponymous business for $US643 million in 2001. Others disappear into obscurity as their clothes make their way into vintage stores.

In Australia, the deals are more discreet and less lucrative, but there’s strong evidence of life away from the runway. Here are three women who ignored Miranda Priestly and want more.

Alexandra Smart, fashion founder turned consultant

For 20 years, sisters Alexandra and Genevieve Smart offered Australian women a gently relaxed approach to sophisticated dressing with their label, Ginger & Smart. Having a respected brand, with a regular slot on the runway at Australian Fashion Week, would be a happy ending for many people, but for Alexandra, it was one of many chapters.

“I think it was a natural evolution,” Alexandra says. “I always wanted to end up here. When I left Ginger and Smart, it was 20 years on the nose. I always wanted to move into something broader and wider.”

Business consultant Alexandra Smart, the co-founder of the Ginger & Smart fashion label.

Following the sale of Ginger & Smart to retail investment firm Alquemie Group in 2019, Alexandra Smart took her approach to entrepreneurship beyond boutiques, forming her Sydney-based business consultancy Smart Alex Studio.

“Running a fashion business is one of the most complex enterprises,” Smart says. “We were designers, retailers and manufacturers, across every aspect of the business. It’s art meets business, on a commercial scale and incredibly complex and stressful and difficult.

“When I look around at organisations that I’m working with, I apply those insights to all sorts of industries that are far less complex than fashion. I do think that the experience that sits within the fashion industry is very valuable.”

Since 2019, Ginger & Smart boutiques have closed, with the brand now owned by Best Markets, but Smart is looking to the future success of other brands, offering executive coaching through her other business, ECI Partners.

“It’s an ongoing journey. What I love now is bringing out an entrepreneurial spirit in other people,” she says.

“I now think of myself as the person I wish I’d had in my business.”

Lisa Gorman, fashion founder turned creative director

The many fans of the Gorman label will not be surprised that its founder took refuge in colour following her surprise departure as creative director in 2021.

Lisa Gorman had spent 22 years in Melbourne, designing collection after collection of ebullient day wear, where all the colours of the rainbow competed for attention. Her exit from Gorman was less uplifting, ending in a legal battle with owners Factory X that reached the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2023.

“I needed to find out what else I wanted to do with myself,” Gorman says. “I have always had a love of colour, but focusing on art allowed me to explore colour without being in a commercial space.”

The result was a series of bold and bright acrylic works, exhibited at the Warrnambool Art Gallery. One of the sculptures, a captivating three-dimensional tartan of neon colours, sits in the window of her new office, in another commercial space.

“When I stepped out of commercial design at Gorman brand, and explored more of an art-based space, what I discovered about myself is that I need a balance between the two. I really do love commercial design as well.”

Balance was restored to Gorman’s life two years ago when she was offered the position of creative director of stationery brand kikki.K. The potential for Gorman to utilise the full spectrum of colour in a commercial environment was there, along with a row of hurdles.

“When I came into kikki.K, I had this idea that stationery is dead,” Gorman says. “I was very wrong.”

“I started to rework the stationery product and thinking about kikki.K as a lifestyle brand. I’m still doing that.”

Along with colourful notepads, small bags and luggage, Gorman has found room to launch a capsule clothing collection, but this is not a return to full-time fashion design. Fashion is just another touchpoint as the brand begins rolling out a fresh store concept.

“Clothing is not something that I said we were going into like a bull out of the gate. We’re not doing a 50-piece collection four times a year. Instead, I want it to evolve with the other lifestyle offerings in the range.”

The product may change but Gorman’s approach to colour remains steadfast. The popular suitcases from kikki.K are bright and bold, with just one black design.

“Black is our least selling colour at this time,” she says.

Hayley Worley, fashion designer turned sheet entrepreneur

Hayley Worley knew it was time to turn her back on producing clothing collections for a Melbourne fast fashion brand on her way to a weekly trend meeting.

“I was exhausted,” Worley says. “I woke up one morning after 4½ years on the job and I just thought, ‘I couldn’t give a shit what the Kardashians are wearing’.”

Having studied design and production at RMIT, Worley honed her fashion skills in the menswear department of Ted Baker in London before working for trend-focused youth brands Tiger Mist and I.AM.GIA..

“It was great experience, but fast fashion is not for the faint-hearted. I had all of these skills in production and offshore manufacturing that I wanted to use, at a slower pace.”

After trying to buy bedding at a department store, Worley saw a gap in the market for on-trend bed linen made with quality fabrics, and launched Sheet Society.

“The first business plan I had for Sheet Society was to capture the feeling of putting together an outfit that made you feel shit hot, except it’s for the bedroom. Then to mix that with the safe, warm feeling you get from clean sheets.”

Hayley Worley, founder of Sheet Society, left a career in fast fashion to start her business.

Worley’s husband, Andy, joined the business as chief executive in 2019. Following significant online growth during the COVID-19 lockdown period, Sheet Society now has two stores in Melbourne, one in Sydney and one opening soon in Adelaide.

“The only thing I miss about fashion is the dopamine you get from seeing your work on other people,” Worley says. “You can’t look into other people’s bedrooms.

“I’ve realised at heart that I’m an entrepreneur. At fashion school, there was that whole Devil Wears Prada feeling where designers are quite esoteric.

“I’m more down to earth and I have found my way.”

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