In bloom

Lizzie and Georgie Renkert, We Are Kindred



Lizzie and Georgie, it has been a tough year for fashion and retail, how have you navigated through it?

Lizzie: It certainly has been a challenging year, however it has also given many of us the chance to stop and re-evaluate the way we were doing things and think of creative solutions. For us, this meant reducing the size and scale of some of our collections and simplifying things down to a more considered offering of pieces which we consider timeless classics.

There can be a lot of pressure in the fashion and retail world to constantly do more — to create more, to produce more, to sell more. If the past year has taught the world anything, it’s that sometimes doing less is more important.

Tell us a bit about what you are doing at Fashion Week this year.

Georgie: This year at Australian Fashion Week we will be presenting the label’s Resort 2022 collection, which is titled ‘Bloom’. The inspiration for the collection draws heavily on gardens — gardens blooming with a multitude of colours — and nature, particularly for our signature floral prints. We’re also enamoured with the idea of elegant garden parties of a bygone era.

How important has it been to have retained a bricks-and-mortar local store during this period?

Lizzie: It was always our plan to have a physical store space where we could interact with our customers and engage with them one-to-one and really immerse them in the world we’ve created for We Are Kindred. There is a fantastic community of Australian brands and designers around us in Paddington and the customers who shop in Paddington have an appreciation for this — they love wearing Australian designers and aren’t afraid to express themselves with the pieces they wear. Throughout the past year there have been many conversations around the importance of ecommerce and online sales, which is of course very important. However, connecting with our customers in Paddington — particularly during a period of time where many people were experiencing greater degrees of isolation and social separation — really reminded us of our vision for the label, and we are so grateful to have the support of our community. 

What's currently inspiring you creatively?

Georgie: At the moment, we’re finalising the designs for our Resort collection, and referencing a lot of older photographs by Slim Aarons and other creatives of that era who captured that mid-20th century elegant, carefree lifestyle. 

WE ARE KINDRED

74 Oxford St, Paddington

wearekindred.com.au