There is a definite upsurge in creating quality individual garments and moving away from cheap mass-produced throw-away items, especially for children. A mother-and-daughter team from Central Hawke’s Bay have taken it a few steps further and are creating children’s garments inspired by children themselves. David caught up with Julia Garner and Amanda Cox and found out their story.
Normally when we meet clothing designers, they have a singular passion for garment design. The fabric choice, the way it falls or behaves, the shape-enhancing characteristics and the sewing techniques dominate the designers’ minds.
Elements of these traits may also be true for the dynamic duo of Julia Gardner and her mum, Amanda Cox. Based in Central Hawke’s Bay, this cottage industry designs and makes kids’ clothing. However, there are several layers to this story that make it intriguing.
Layered Design Studios is the brainchild of Julia, a qualified graphic artist with a Bachelor of Computer Graphic Design from the University of Waikato. Amongst general graphic design work, Julia found her passion in creating surface patterns; this means she creates patterns for fabric, or wrapping paper or anything that requires a duplicating pattern print.
Julia says she wanted to create designs that could be used in multiple materials rather than design one-off pieces.
Not only did that make sense to her from a business model but it also fascinated her that a pattern design could be made into fabric and then into clothes, while it could also be used as a backdrop at a conference or wrapping paper to be bought at your local stationery shop. Initially, her focus was to design fabric patterns to be sold to wholesale factories for the clothing market.
Julia said that after her youngest arrived, she found herself grappling with postnatal depression. “It was a tough road, but amidst the struggles, I discovered solace in creativity. Each stitch became a form of therapy, a reminder of my resilience and the healing of just starting something new. And so I started sewing with Mum,” she said.
Amanda always wanted to make kids’ clothes and Julia wanted to help her. Julia said that her mum is a clever sewer, but she wasn’t sure how to take her creations to market once she had made them. “Together we make a good team; we share ideas of designs, styles and marketing and we both do the sewing and markets together.”
When it came to buying clothes for her boys, Julia was tired of seeing the usual dinosaur prints and basic car/truck/digger designs for boys’ clothing, alongside the usual pink glittery unicorn designs for girls. So she set to, making her own specific patterns for kids’ clothing. This is where Julia’s mum came in – a handy sewer, and passionate about children’s clothing – just what she needed.
“My mum inspired me to delve into using my own surface pattern designs for fabric, which we could sew into clothes. I have two wee boys, so they became the target audience and the inspiration for designs.”
The two created their own clothing brand called Inspired by Ollie, named appropriately after Julia’s four-year-old son, Ollie, who is the model client and the designer’s inspiration – you could say, the youngest creative designer in town. A bit like the motivator that inspires the motivator. Julia creates the pattern and chooses the material to have it printed on, then both Julia and Amanda jump on their sewing machines and get busy making clothes to sell.
Ollie’s interest and curiosity sets up the platform for Julia to create designs that Ollie will like. She cringes when she hears parents say their children like a particular clothing item just because the parent likes the design, even if the child is not so keen. In Julia’s world, and in a nutshell: Ollie shows Mum what he likes or what he’s thinking; Mum designs it; it gets made into fabric; Nanny and Mum sew it; and Ollie wears it.
“The other day Ollie said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a fire engine-digger.’ Soright now, I am designing an excavator fire engine, and this will probably be the next fabric to be made into clothes,”says Julia.
She likes the fact that the designs become an expression of his creativity. Ollie is very curious about bees, so much so that he becomes upset when he finds a dead bee in the backyard. So, Mum designed the fabric, and now there is a range of clothes with bees on it.
Julia’s other child, Zander, one year old, shows a strong interest in brushing his teeth and he is fixated on tigers. Yes, you guessed it … Julia is making a pattern with tigers brushing their teeth.
“One day we were doing some watercolour painting at home and Ollie poured way too much water onto his painting, so I grabbed some paper and pressed it on to soak up the excess water. When I lifted it off, I thought the design was intricate and inspiring, so I made it into a print, got it printed onto fabric and it’s one of our bestselling designs,” Julia said.
Ollie is also fascinated with giraffes jumping on trampolines and lions eating spaghetti. “Kids come up with great ideas, if we listen,” Julia said.
Julia loves that these garments have such a rich story behind them. They all mean something, and she says the kids proudly wear them, as they form a strong connection with their clothes. Julia likes to err towards gender-neutral styles, like the bees. She says there’s nothing wrong with the typical boys’ and girls’ clothing in the shops, it’s just that she wants to create clothes that are more inspiring to all children and inspired by children.
Julia has noticed that when her children want a certain design, they have an elaborate reason why it means so much to them. She believes that, while they wear the clothes that they choose, they are living the story they hold about that item. Their reasoning may go far deeper than their parents. She says their imagination is so much bigger than ours.
Julia and Amanda sell their clothes at local markets and all over New Zealand through their website store. We do sell some clothes at local shops, but mostly our sales come from markets.
They have no desire to go global or have a large manufacturing business, as Julia says, handmaking the items is all part of the love of doing this, particularly because it forms connections between herself and her mum and with the children. “We would still like to grow some more, and sales are generally good, as people see that our designs are different from what’s offered in the mainstream stores. Children really love our designs, I guess that comes from being inspired by kids,” Julia says.
Julia and Amanda design some of their garments themselves as well as using bought patterns. Sometimes it’s a hybrid, where they use a pattern then make alterations to it. For example, Ollie insists on having more pockets, so we often add more pockets. Julia made a business-style shirt for Ollie based on a typical businessman’s shirt. “He calls it his ‘little man’s shirt’ and he loves it.”
Julia says, “Now that Ollie can talk more, I sit with him and ask him what he is fascinated with at the moment, and what shall we make next? Some of his stories are amazing and always elaborate.
“It’s so fulfilling for me to listen to him and turn his ideas into something real so he is wearing an expression of his own imagination.” Julia said that they found other children also relate to the clothes, and Ollie often has conversations at kindy about the clothes he’s wearing. Sometimes Julia does use standard bought fabric, particularly if Ollie picks it out and wraps a story around what he’s thinking about that design.
Julia also uses her own childhood pets as inspiration, steering away from the stereotypical gendered designs. Currently Julia is working on one of her own ideas, ready for the Christmas market: reindeers making cookies. Seasonal wear also joins in the style and design equation with winter jackets made from sweatshirt fabric and lined for better comfort, and warm glow in the dark dressing gowns. She is now preparing for spring and summer ranges with bees, daisies, sandcastles and ice blocks on the design list.
Clothes can be just clothes, or they can become our favourites for some reason or story probably known only to us. We treasure those garments, and we cling to them for as long as we can – or as long as we are allowed to! Julia has opened the door to another layer of clothing for children, one to create their own story with what they wear.
