[00:00]
Belinda O’Donoghue you moved where I grew up at a little place called area Park, which is about 100 kilometers from Wagga in the riverina and I went to boarding school started in Canberra lived in Bondi Junction in Sydney. And then I got married and moved to girly which is about 30k south of Maury in the north of New South Wales. Now, let me ask you where is the fashion capital of the world to a budding designer? Really? I suppose it would be Paris Milan Paris. Yeah, certainly not anywhere close by to where I live and you grew up in the riverina and we’re gonna talk about your incredible career and story in a second. But did you have aspirations of being a designer from the very beginning? I did I did. My mother was a beautiful seamstress and back in the day all women so beautiful clothes and we talked Smalls and everything was lovely and she made out of clothes.
[01:00]
As children and I desperately wanted to learn to sew and my sister could so she’s two and a half years older than I am and Mum just was busy and didn’t have time to teach me. So I taught myself. I talked her song machine and just started creating some very questionable things and it was the 80s so he could get away with some very unusual things.
[01:21]
That’s brilliant. And then did you get to the city with study? Like how did you go from the riverina to a capital city? I did I went to boarding school and then decided to go to Canberra and I always knew that I would do proper qualifications at some point, but I started sort of I was working in retail. I worked for David Jones and then I worked for Ashley then I worked to Country Road and then I thought I’d better go and get some proper qualifications. So I went to Canberra Institute of Technology and I’d always been selling during that time and I would was back in the days of being SS and all those sorts of things and not always be making friends running up dresses for parties and and different things but it was good to get some proper politicians and then you qualified you get everything that you need to kind of make yourself a legitimate designer or set you on the path not to say that you don’t have to be a designer without clothes. Yeah. You got them up you up your sleeve and then what was some of the
[02:21]
Amazing designers that you worked with at the beginning of your career when I was a college. I did work experience with Alex Perry and he was just starting to become a famous. He’d been a model book of one of the model agencies in Sydney. So he knew all the fabulous magazines and had great contacts. So so he was being photographed a lot and and I just loved his gown thought they were amazing. So I went off to double Bay for two weeks, I think and did work experience and just loved it and thought that he was amazing and he is amazing. He’s a really lovely fellow and Incredibly talented he wouldn’t now I wouldn’t imagine but in those days he was sitting at the machine and he was doing the fittings and he was cutting fabrics. And yeah, he was very inspiring really lovely fella. Do you have any of your own signature Styles? Like what makes your brand of Designing and creating unique probably the thing that I am most known for is buttons and loops and and I think they lovely on a gown, but I don’t
[03:20]
Actually trust zippers and only a few weeks ago. I made of it just for a lovely girl and I didn’t make the bridesmaids dresses but about five minutes before they’re about to walk down the aisle a bridesmaid unzipped her dress and zipped to the end of the zipper off and and I had to literally Stitch her into her dress and that always put buttons and loops and a zipper because I’m terrified if a zipper goes is really nothing. You can do other than stitch them into the dress. Oh my goodness. Is that like your worst nightmare is yes or thought that like, yeah, I Stitch every seam that I stitched twice because I’m terrified of something coming up and a wedding dress is a very easy. So it’s really has to be very firm and will made and there’s not really any room for error. So you’re probably can’t tell you how many buttons and and my husband actually he does occasionally he’ll be making buttons because some dressers might have 200 bucks all the way down the back so I need work to the bottom of the zipper but that they are there. That’s that would
[04:21]
Be my signature. I think there’s probably been a lot and many a groom who was first trying to get their brother.
[04:29]
at the end of the day
[04:32]
That’s fantastic. Sometimes I do say to girls or go and see your mother before you leave the reception. Undo the buttons if it’s still there, but get someone else. It’s small fingers to understand have a small finger friend on hand to the wedding day. I love that you spent some time working in the high-end bridal stores in Sydney that you’ve just talked about where you concerned when you knew that you would be moving recently what that would do to your career. Oh, no, not at all when I studied fashion design. I studied commercial design because I thought at that point I’m going to live overseas and work for a fabulous fashion house, and I don’t want to be addressed maker but then fell in love with my husband and and he announced that he wanted to move back to the country and I thought oh, that’s fine. Well, we’ll go back and and just probably in the beginning was just doing dressmaking but always specialized in wedding dresses and then I just decided to not do normal selling because it took up too much time.
[05:32]
And I didn’t really love it. And I just decided that I would just do specialty wedding best bike wedding place was really what I wanted to do. Wow. And as a bit of a side note. Did you make your own wedding dress? I did. I did actually Alex Perry helped me which is really lovely. Wow finished working in Sydney a month before we got married and we lived right in Bondi Junction behind there was a blue whale Car Wash which is quite an iconic structure and they are actually knocking it down during that month. So I was sitting in this apartment for a month sewing like my three bridesmaid’s dresses two flower girls dress, my mother’s dress and my dress and and Alex helped me do all the fittings which was really lovely because you can’t really fit yourself with something like that. So I gave myself a deadline of a month to make everything and and I did it which was really good Ah, that’s amazing because like a bride doesn’t have enough on her plate, you know, just had to then dress everyone is so absolutely and it was it was 1997 and it was lots of pale pink Duchess set and everyone.
[06:32]
Oh.
[06:35]
This is what I do for living. I had to go all out and
[06:41]
Oh my gosh. I cannot wait to see a photo of that and Melinda what was your first impression of moray when you landed in the town? Oh Maurice A really lovely town. It’s an amazing Community. It’s it’s supposedly Australia’s wealthiest rural sure and they’re very big properties and pretty big players. But yeah, it’s a lovely Town everyone’s very friendly, but I think a lot of people are probably frightened of it but this put in bad in every town in every country town I suppose and in the cities isn’t there really just got to find the right balance. I’ve actually heard of more Ray because of more on a plate or yes. Yeah. This year is the 20th anniversary and it’s so amazing weekend and phenomenal people on the committee that worked tirelessly their amazing. Actually. It’s a really great weekend. So when you landed into the community that was the life that he had a head of you was
[07:41]
that hard to continue your business once you are on the ground or how did you sort of pick up your business within the Region’s it was probably took me a little while to just get my bearings in and then I still always sent I’d send people to see
[07:57]
Need to buy Fabrics or to Brisbane and we’ve got a great fabric store in Moree Sylvia’s who’s she’s 86 and has it been in business for Nelly 50 years and she is amazing and I always say when she retires I’ll retire because I couldn’t do it without her and she can access pretty much anything that I need. And so if I was making a wedding dress, she’s got a little book and everything I buy for your dress goes in that book and at the end she’ll just send the bride a little account and go over it and sort everything out and probably only really laces. The only thing that I will send girls I say, well Sylvia can’t get it. Some laces can be 200 dollars a minute. They can be 1500 dollars a meter. So that’s something that they have to go and choose and and I always say to girls when you go and choose lace you will know what you don’t like more than what you do like and you just gotta figure it out from there. So we are really lucky and that we’ve got her it’s great. And I’ve got great relationships with fabric Supply is in the cities as well. So do you think it’s mutual like if you kept her in business?
[08:57]
Much as she’s good which is yeah. She always says that which is really lovely they interviewed her from a magazine a little while ago and and she wrote a little thing about that. You know how good my business is for her business and and the same with Tafe we have about 30 students at Tafe and and every day they’ll pop over to Sylvia’s for zippers and fabrics and piping and things so it’s it’s a really good thing and we all had already say what will we do and Sylvia clothes clothes, but you know, she’s she works from 10 until 10 until 2:00 every day. And yeah, she’s quite amazing at 806. It’s quite maybe we need someone who’s listening to be the successor to Sylvia to go and live in Moree and keep their legacy alive. She’s
[09:42]
Determined to keep she had an aunt that had a shop in Moray and I think Molly Heffernan was still in the shop at 90 something and I think Sylvia thinks well, if she can do it then I can do it as well. Absolutely. I guess the Hub of your business is bringing new people into the regions through something that you really wouldn’t expect which is Bridal. It is in the shopkeepers will often say, oh we had one of your Brides that came in and and they do a little bit of shopping and more. He’s got some fabulous shots. So we’re very lucky and we’ve got the hot Artesian water. So people can stay for sometimes they just stay with me, but sometimes they’ll stay in town and stay in motels that have got the hot balls. So it’s lovely winter time. I find that really fascinating, you know, if a bride is working with you and then they actually have to go to you for the fitting as opposed to Paddington double bags, and we’re we’re nine KS west of girly west of the
[10:42]
And it’s a little bit of a dirt road. There have been times when I ride has been very bad and I’ll have to go and meet them on the bits of it because they won’t get their little cars down our road. So there’s always it’s not easy. It’s not just like, you know popping off to double beta Park pay for parking and go into a store when it rains and someone’s coming. I’ve got to be thinking. Oh, I can’t come that way and I’ve got to do this. So yeah, it can be a little bit tricky. I have had to get my husband a couple of times and sometimes they’ve been floods. I had a bright a couple of years ago and there was flooding and it was three days before her wedding and all the roads were cut and we have a neighbor with the helicopter and I nearly ranked he said anyway the roadside and everything was fine. I always laugh it’s all write a book one day of all the funny things that happen and there’s always something with the wedding that will be a disaster or that’s just the way that it is that you figure it out. I’ve not got a dress to a girl yet. So hopefully that was just gonna ask that. Have you ever so you’ve always got the dress to the girl.
[11:42]
Time otherwise Juliet the girl with the flood I was and I was very calm I said we’ll figure it out and I was thinking oh I even had the Fright company in town and they thought they could get it on a plane and get to Sydney and then get to Glen Innes and I was really she hadn’t tried it on she was a Sydney girl and usually they come child on for the last time a week before the wedding and then I know everything’s fine. I don’t like to get to the wedding day and then have to be altering something and so yeah, that was a little bit stressful but he got there and there’s my husband he was my little co-pilot and the road that we had to go and only opened up that morning. So we went and we got through and that was great. And so do you remember every single bride by name? Like you said with the floods like Samantha with the awkward? Zip the Black Book of Melinda’s Bridal experiences in 2020. The BAM Banker Museum Maury Gallery had a 20 year retrospective exhibition of gowns, and we had 80 g
[12:42]
And you could book a little, you know, walk around with me and everyone used to say, how do you remember all these girls? And I said, oh sometimes I’m not so good on their married name. I will always remember their maiden name, but when you make a dress from start, you don’t forget anything about that dress you remember everything and remember everything about that bride and and you become very close to those Brides. So there’s lots of stories and lots of chatting and the fitting just doesn’t take 10 minutes. Like they’ll usually be here for an hour and a half and you’re chatting and chatting to the mother and you find out a little bit about them. So this sort of them and they’re waiting dates are seed into my brain because I’ve got that deadline. I’ve got to have this dress done by certain time. So I do have very good memory for that. I’ve got a very good memory for dresses not so good on other things but good love it. So you like sewing a storey into every dress but in your case as well, there’s sort of this added element because the bride’s actually have to road trip to Moree. They do fittings. Wow, and you mentioned that they sometimes stay with you they do.
[13:42]
It’s not picked up girls from overseas and we picked him up from the airport or they’re here in the house with me. I can do the sewing Triad on they can sit and chat talk to my husband or we’ve had some lovely stories with Brides over the years staying which has been really nice if my kids are really enjoyed people a lot, you know, lots of brides coming in. My husband’s really enjoyed them. So yeah, it’s good. It’s been a really lovely thing and is it a nice opportunity for them to experience the regions and maybe even have a little bit of rep from the bride or process? Yeah, they do actually and you know quite often they’re always so quiet and so calm or it’s so hot and there’s snakes and flies and all those sorts of things that have been in the country that they do. I think I think they love coming to someone’s house and it’s a personal thing and
[14:30]
And that’s probably part of the charm of having been make your dress. Maybe it’s not a it’s not a pushy Bridal Shop experience. Not all bridal shops are pushy. But I mean that’s just the nature of the Beast I suppose and I always say to girls look address will evolve. We’ll figure it out and sometimes girls do come with to me and they don’t know what they want, but they’ll figure it out and I usually say go away have a think about it. But and I’ve said this before there’s a certain look that a bride gets on her face and a certain smile and then I’m like, yep, that’s fine. She’s happy what like it’s a big commitment to actually like get in the car and drive that long to see someone like obviously you’ve got an incredible reputation. How did you establish that like because the incentive to come out to the country for your fitting and for the whole process for a bride is it it’s a big commitment. It is a big commitment and sometimes girls will call me and I will always say to them don’t try and dresses if you find the dress that you love and it’s in your budget.
[15:30]
Buy it because by the time you factor in the cost of fuel or flight or whatever but usually girls that come to see me will have fallen in love with a 30000 dollar dress. So it’s obviously a lot more or attendance. It’s a lot more cost-effective to come and have something made. I’ll probably am cheaper than it I would be I am cheaper than a city dressmaker because I don’t have the overheads that they have, you know, I do like girls to get value for money or don’t see any point in charging ridiculous amounts of money. You’ve got to be reasonable with it everything within this is expensive and getting more expensive once they’ve like made their, you know decision to proceed with you and they come and stay and you create the dress, you know that the zipper didn’t break that the buttons held up and everything was wonderful. Did they leave a bit of an imprint on your heart or do you just jump into the next one? No, no, definitely they come in and I’m always a little bit sad like come into my life and then they go out of this is another
[16:30]
Broad that takes their place but quite most of the time if I can I will drive to where they live and dress them on the wedding day. I will come I mean I’ll yeah, I mean obviously sadly I’ve not gone overseas but I’m flying to cities and driven if it’s within probably 10 hours drive all the local girls. I obviously will go and dress and they’ll be lots of girls that if I don’t make their dress I’ll know them or I know their mother and I use if I know them well, I’ll offer and say can I come on the wedding day and I’ll get on the dresses and get you dressed and make sure everything’s fine. And it’s just something that I like to do and I have a sign that mums usually running around like a headless chalk of Bridesmaids are usually look at themselves got them and figure out how to get into it. So I like to go and and with my Brides if I can sometimes I might have four Brides on one day, so I have to like last year. I had two Brides In Wagga, which is amazing that they are both City girls.
[17:30]
Snow one was actually one was from Sydney and one was from out near lightning Ridge and they both asked me to make their dresses and they are both getting married in Wagga within half an hour of each other. So I drove to Wagga dressed one bride got to her house at 7:30 in the morning. I told her dresses. I think I owned 11 dresses for the day left her at 10:30 got in the cars Zoom to the other bride got her dressed. She was dressed because she was the first brother booked me a got her dressed by 2:30 got back in the car drive back to the other bride and got to her with about three minutes to spare. She was about to walk down the aisle. Everything was fine and why we went so it’s just I mean, I’m crazy my parents always thank you don’t need to travel to those brides and it’s well, that’s just what I like to do. Otherwise, I see it at home going everything’s all right. I hope they on that dress properly and Belinda. So you literally travel Australia yourself to get the dress onto the bride it it’s a daughter’s quietly not always.
[18:30]
Spot if it’s within reason and I went to Wagga because my family lived down there. So that was easy. But yeah, I will try and and probably girls that I’ve I’m starting now to make dresses for girls that I’ve watched grow up or I’ve made their formal dresses haven’t had a bride that I’ve made their mother’s dress. I don’t think yet but that’ll happen. But yeah, there’s lots of bills that are starting to get to that age where it’s lovely of I’ve done the wedding dress the formal dresses and now we’re on wedding dresses. So then I will go that extra mile for them. Literally. Yeah.
[19:04]
Melinda you’re an
[19:06]
Apps are you a local?
[19:07]
Jeopardy in your community
[19:09]
I can’t say that my children always say they hate going to town and hate going to the supermarket because you know, you stop and you chat to people and and my husband’s famous for saying that he’s famous because of his wife but not at all. But I mean people do know about me I suppose and and through the tape us as well. They they know that I that I teach there as well as making wedding dresses. It sounds to me like you’re being extremely humble based on what we’ve just discussed. I really have never heard of a designer going to the links that you have and the bridal industry is pretty competitive. Obviously. It’s a big industry the exposed that samples as all those events that draw crowds. How do you stay connected to the industry yourself from living in the Region’s a lot of social media to be honest. A lot of Instagram a lot of just looking up designers and seeing what’s about I’m used to find magazines and I’ll probably bought more and American
[20:09]
Martha Stewart magazines, but then I just decided not schools know what they want. And really my schools do know what they want. And so long as I’ve got an idea of what Fabrics are out there and fabrics do go in Cycles like at the moment silk mercado’s very fashionable. Where is two years ago silk faille was very fashionable lace will become that you know, there was very much the Kate Middleton effect of the you know, beautiful lace dresses when I first started out when I worked for Alex Perry and I worked for another woman in the Under The Ritz-Carlton double Bay and that was in 1996 dresses were really tight bodices and Bigfoot skirts, and they were very simple dresses have more in to a lot more difficult and my skills have had to keep going. I’m always learning and always figuring out how to do something because dresses have become far more complicated than what they used to be which is a good thing. That’s a really really good thing. But you think that to the dresses of the 70s and 80s and and probably early 90s very the straight dress.
[21:09]
Is all they were poofy dresses and there was there were pretty simple. Everyone had pretty much the same silhouette. Whereas now they’ll be straight bias Airlines flippy, you know, it’s ball gown. It’s yeah, there’s so many different styles of dresses being in the regions as well. Do you feel that the aesthetic that you’ve got like your own personal touch that you put on the dresses has that evolved or been influenced by the setting that you’re in very classy? I’m a pretty conservative person. I like I think there’s just nothing like the classics and I think that’s probably a country a city gotta imagine going up in the country. I used to get into trouble when I was a college because they want me to burn holes in things and rip things and I’ll be like no I do not want to make clothes and rips in them. Who’s gonna wear them.
[21:59]
Yeah, I was not someone that had a you know, crazy hair do and we close at college. So classic. I just think there’s nothing you know, you can’t be the classic style in the community having someone like you and you talked about the tape and and Sylvia’s, you know, all of these things that are sort of connected to to the industry of dressmaking Designing. Do you think that because you do have such a presence and an influence in the town that it then kind of encourages other people in the community particularly, maybe younger people to consider a career in design and in fashion. Oh
[22:37]
So there’s actually although this girl and I don’t and I didn’t have any influence on her but there’s a young girl who lives not far from dubbo and she started a business like I have got and I’m trying to get her to come up to me so I can in part. Well, I’m not say that it’s wisdom but give her some tips and tricks that I wish that I had someone that have that would have helped me and it’s great to see a young person that’s really having a go and and she’s very sadly on the marketing and all those things that aren’t certainly not and when I started out there was no Instagram and it’s that was absolutely pure word of mouth and someone’s cousins sisters. You know, that that heard about me that it’s interesting watching how she’s a girl. She’s Kate and she’s by Banks and I’m a bit fascinated by how she does things that it’s great to see someone else that’s doing it’s not an easy career path, and it’s not a
[23:30]
It’s not a career path that makes you lots of money anything that’s best folk or handmade and you think oh, you know, you should charge this and you should charge that but you can’t you never ever can charge for the hours that you put into something. It’s just not the way that it works sadly and I’ve got to feel and people always had to be on don’t charge enough but I’ve got to feel right that what I’ve charged is the right amount of money. I can’t I don’t want to charge ridiculous and that’s of money. I think it needs to be affordable and Everyone’s entitled to a beautiful dress and they’ve been girls over the years that haven’t been able to afford address or I’ve made the dress for nothing or something and and they’ll always be a couple of girls every year that I’ll alter address and I know that this struggling and they can’t afford and I won’t charge them on like that’s fine. You know, it all comes around Twins and rounds and and lots of people will pay me far more than I charge and I get beautiful gifts. So it does work out in the long run and it’s nice to be able to give back and just say no, that’s fine. That’s right. That’s you know, I’m happy.
[24:30]
To help someone running a business is hard work. Is there anything different that you notice in running a business in the region It’s like because obviously you’ve been sustainable because you’re still in business and thriving how has it been managing that from where you are. You gotta have a very good memory. I’ve got to be I’m not a naturally organized person and life slightly chaotic sometimes but I’ve got to think, you know, you’re coming from Sydney for your wedding dress to try the wedding dress on in two weeks time, and I’ve got to make sure that I’ve got all the Fabrics of God all the zippers of and Sylvia’s really good but there’s some things that she won’t stock or she’s run out of stock or the people in her supplies can’t get and that’s really difficult. I’ve just got to be on the ball and make sure that I’ve got everything that I need years ago. When I first started I used to send buttons off to Sydney to have covered and I’d have to make sure that I send them the fabric in in advance get and then they’d send the back and then there was a couple in
[25:30]
Narrow who’s to make the buttons beautiful dear old couple and and then and I would pre-pay a little envelope. So it wasn’t hard they’d send me the buttons back and then they got elderly and decided to sell me the Button making apparatus and I was a bit like, oh, it’s another thing that’ll have to do but it is good to know that I’ve got that here because that was quite stressful. I’ve been looking at the mailman delivering mail thinking I hope those buttons are there but it’s just a matter of being organized and making sure that I’ve got everything that I need to to do it. But yeah, it can be a little bit trickier. I’m sure that if I lived in a CD and I could whip off to greenfields or to beautiful Saigon fabrics and all the gorgeous glorious shops that it’d be just heaven but I just can’t do that. I’ve just got to make sure that everything’s here before I start again when we chat. I think of say naturally about the dressmaker, which I’m sure lots of people Board of watch that film my daughter and a friend to see the dressmaker in narrow bright and when the film ended
[26:30]
Stood up and all these girls started laughing. I think there was about 12 girls who were Brides of wine. They were like,
[26:40]
it was
[26:41]
alternating just the quality of clothes and and designs that you know designers like yourself can make for other people and it’s fascinating that there’s this stereotype within Regional communities that everyone gets around and you know checkered shirts and a cobras. What’s your opinion on that? Actually, I was fortunate enough a couple of weeks ago. There’s a beautiful story in narrabri called Marvel and a very fabulous hotel called The Tourist hotel and they had an international women’s day and they asked me to be on a panel and they said one of the questions was who inspires you and I looked out across this sea of amazingly clad beautiful local women and I said really country girls country women are so inspiring and people think a lot of people from the city thinking everyone’s day and wearing, you know, ugly boots and and you know that church but country people are Australia’s biscuits so secret, I think that very stylish and Country women and they serve and they know exactly what they want. But yeah, that’s that. I think I’m amazing.
[27:42]
And it’s so true like you’re saying there’s so much story in design and clothes and what we wear and what it says about identity and how it represents us that a discussion around Fashion isn’t trivial. It’s very important because the fact that you know within the regions you can be someone that might be out working in something that suitable for work whatever that may be depending on what you’re doing whether it’s on the land or in a store or whatever and then you can have an incredible experience dressing up and looking amazing. Like you don’t just necessarily have to wear your boots and whatever to the pub, you know what I mean like this this experience. It’s got to change that idea that everyone just colors and people are so buried aren’t they? Definitely probably in the last few years of quite a few Brides that have gone home to the family farm. They might be not brothers or they work with their brothers and they are girls that work on the farm and they come in their boots and their jeans and and they seem to be the girls that choose the super high-end.
[28:42]
Very glamorous dresses, it’s quite amazing. And yeah, it’s really lovely to see and it’s so lovely to see so many girls taking on the male roles in Family Farms and it’s great. It’s really good and then they marry and sometimes their husbands will join them in the farm but quite often they just keep they just keep running the farm. It’s fantastic absolutely fashion is critical in changing the perception of how country people really are within these communities, isn’t it? Yeah, definitely. Actually there was another International women’s day luncheon and there was quite a well-known girl that came to be the speaker and she put a little thing on her stories and said I didn’t know what to wear. So she wore a simple brown dress and she said I was shot by the you know, the beautifully dressed country girls and I think she had no idea. I think she just thought that everyone would be there in Jane’s and cowboy boots nothing wrong with that. But I think she just didn’t expect these sea of beautiful dressed women and we’ve got beautiful stores in narrow, Brian Moray with nunui. There’s
[29:42]
Great dress shops. We’re very very much and also maybe as well because you’re close to Cotton as well. So there’s that problem inside. Yeah, so, you know where people understand their fibers where they’ve come from as well. So it seems very obvious from our conversation. But I mean just did what do you feel like you’ve contributed to the town since you’ve arrived?
[30:03]
Oh, gosh, I don’t know that’s a funny tricky question. I suppose people coming and staying in Moray or staying in narrabri and going and visiting stores and staying in places and having dinners and doing those sorts of things. That’s that’s probably about it. I know people maybe this doesn’t sound the right thing. I think people are quite proud that there’s a dressmaker that makes wedding dresses in the district. I think it’s a pretty it is a pretty unique thing I suppose.
[30:28]
And people think that’s a great thing which is really lovely. Yeah, because in this season of the podcast we are looking at the ways that you know people coming from outside in can reduce and bring different perspectives different qualities ideas. And this is certainly a different tourism Bridal tourism in the bush. I’m always a little bit fascinated. I have lots of brides that have come from the CD or moved out and and they’ll be stylus and interior designers and have these amazing high flying careers and and then they marry a farm or all some and they’re a little bit lost for a little while but I think eventually find their feet and you know work in galleries or stalls or start their own businesses and buy from the bush. That’s the perfect example, isn’t it? The one of the girls that that started by the bush rang me when they first started she should all we’ve been sitting around a table and there’s a few of this and and you know, would you be
[31:28]
Interest I said I’ll look it’s not really my thing. But good luck that’s amazing and within the next day, you know, they had 1,000 followers and it just kept on going and it was extraordinary to see these women from from Warren that started this phenomenal thing that’s been amazing for Country towns. Like it really has been incredible and all the lovely young girls that have started businesses that have moved and there’s a girl while gets that started a business that and I think they’ve rejuvenated towns to be honest that people don’t have to go to dubbo or somewhere. They’ve got Stones throwing wall that all beautiful men can be it can handle and the girl in narrow Brian Marvel and there’s a lovely girl here’s a plain a shop called plain anymore and it’s great that these girls move and then they start businesses. So country people can can be like a city person really that’s the thing, isn’t it? Absolutely and I think we’ve got people like you Melinda to thank for the visibility of that but believe in that that’s possible, you know, you’ve had your business over
[32:28]
So many years like you’ve explained through all the changes going from Word of Mouth just in person to the referrals from Instagram and having someone like you present in the community and doing what you do from where you do that makes other people believe that it’s possible speaking of Rejuvenation. I’m just very interested because like you said, the wedding dress is designed to be the dress that a person feels most amazing in then it goes back on the Shelf. You pop it on a coat hanger. You put it in you pay and I ordering amount of money for it to be dry cleaned to try and get all of the dirt and dust out of the end of the beautiful classic silk thing that you have spent many months studiously upon.
[33:16]
And then it just sits in the cupboard for many many years. What is your advice on how we can get Second Life further live.
[33:25]
From our wedding dresses. What’s the future life of the wedding dress once it’s been warned? I do make a lot of dresses not a lot but I do quite often will a girl will say to me I’d love to win mum’s wedding. So okay buddy. Bring mum’s wedding dresses.
[33:39]
I had a girl a few years ago who wanted to wear her mum’s wedding dress and she came with her mum and her sister and she tried it all that she read. Oh, I haven’t tried this once I was 10. No, I don’t think I want to wear mum’s wedding dress and I said that’s fine. We’ll just take so usually what happens that can we pull the dress apart and we’ll use the lace from the skirt on the bottom. So and this girl we used her mother sleeves and we used some of the lace in a got a back of her skirt. So they’ll be an element quite often. They’ll be a little bit of fabric left over from a dress and I’ll give it back to the bride and say well this would be lovely in a Christian gown and most girls don’t really want to chop up their dresses just yet. And when we have the dress exhibition, we had 80 dresses and it was lovely to see those dresses come out of the boxes again and and these brides and their daughters or and they came to see their mom’s wedding dress in an exhibition, which was really lovely but obviously that’s not gonna happen all the time. But I think I slightly have horror has been people so they want to die. They’re getting dressed and like no you don’t you just need to keep it and
[34:39]
It’s a lovely thing there’s something magical about a wedding dress and and sometimes girls do sell their wedding dresses. And I think that’s a great thing if that’s what you want to do.
[34:50]
Oh, I always saw very good statistics, very few divorces, very very few Wars and I don’t know whether that’s a country theme but I think probably in a lot probably 300 of them might have been five divorces, maybe so good really with the statistics of modern day divorce. Maybe that’s actually the treat to your marketing is that all those Brides have heard that you’re actually like the dress also looks amazing, but it’s also good for like a long-term partnership. That doesn’t fall apart at the same. It’s just like they’re just one person. So I think that’s a pretty good thing. Oh Melinda, it’s been so wonderful talking to you. Like there’s just so many stories you could go on and on and delve even further into that Bridal black book. I’m sure such a pleasure to hear your joy and just the commitment and investment that you’ve made into this industry into your to your brand and the experience that you give to all of the Bride. So something really lovely thinking about the way you can honor you know, the old
[35:50]
With the new in regard to even how he said maybe repurposing someone’s dress that someone in the family has has warned and then adding the newness all the stories and just how special fashion can be Melinda. Thank you so much for your time. Then wonderful chatting to you and please make sure you send a picture through of your wedding day as well because that sounds amazing. Thank you.
