I was in love. This new avenue of creativity had completely taken hold. A new door had opened for me and soon, one after the other, more designs started to come together.
I had discovered a local gem of a seamstress (more on that later) and pun totally intended, we began to work together seamlessly. After the first few garments came to life and were displayed in our boutique they began to sell quickly.
Designs like “Whitesnake” (pictured here), Iron Maiden and Japanese Dream literally flew out the door. Within a few short weeks, my first bespoke order was requested.
These upcycled garments had now begun to have a real personality and were growing steadily in popularity, quite separately to what we were already doing in our boutique. It was at this exciting point that we realised the fledgling concept needed a name.
At the time we still had our rockstar Barista working the café side of the business, who not only made the best coffee and hot chocolate in the hills according to local folk, but also had his own style of creative flair going on.
One day we were chatting about names for this new “brand” that had taken on a life of its own. He pointedly asked me what I really wanted to say through these designs.
My answer: “I really want to shake up the world of sustainable fashion y’know. Really do things differently!” After some thought he came out with: “How about Declare? You want to make a declaration, right?” I could of squeezed the life out of him. Not only was that exactly what I wanted to do, the word also used my name! It was perfect.
