Studio Helix by Lisa Stack : Upcoming Pop Up

Meet Lisa Stack, Designer and owner of Studio Helix. This fabulous Studio has a POP UP this Saturday - NOT TO BE MISSED - August 18 @ Level 1 / 722 Bourke Street Redfern.

I love what Lisa has to say about the way she wants women to feel when they wear her clothes. Learn a bit more about Lisa and her work, influences and passion .....

I went to Japan for the first time in 1996 and then met and married a Japanese man, so began my love affair wth the place…. It has informed my practice and my aesthetic, my daughter Shizuka and I have travelled there so many times to visit our family, we’ve lost count….

There is an attention to nature + beauty + design in every aspect which still engages me. I find so much inspiration + quiet reflective time there, after all to make things takes a lot of energy and thinking time which is not always possible in my bustling Sydney life. I ran my own HELIX store which built up my brand and got me a wider audience but took so much time away from the bit I loved; the creative doing bit! As rents became more + more prohibitive over the 10 years ( 2005 - 2015 )

I found the solution was to move my premises off the street + hold Open Studio events and now my people shop at these events and by appointment, they get to see where it’s made and feel special, that they still know where to find me.
This way I can live a more balanced life and travel more, last year we went to Peru and this year Tokyo, Kyoto + the Art Islands of Naoshima

I studied fine arts/printmaking at the VCA in the early 80’s so I trained as an artist and I happen to make clothes. I draw, design + print the fabrics in runs of no more than 10 or 20 garments. I don’t make many of any one thing so they are limited editions.
Each piece is hand printed by me in my studio. then sewn outside by one seamstress.
I don’t print yardage as the print placement is important + designed to flatter the body./

I love people, I enjoy the interaction. I’ve been making clothes and dressing women since about 1993 when I started my first clothing label. I really like women to feel better about themselves, Many things about our culture make women feel insecure, about themselves and their bodies. I take great joy when my customers go away looking interesting, happier, comfortable and more accepting of their bodies, they come to me, - or some of them do – and say …. but I cant wear that ….. well sure you can’t wear THAT dress... but you can wear this and this and these are the things you CAN wear.

I make selections they feel comfortable with and it gets easier as you age because I’m doing the same thing for myself, I think …You know I used to be able to really rock that style of dress, but I can’t now... but I CAN wear this. I really feel it’s a community of great women that I get to dress. All ages and demographics, the clothes I make are perennial, they are not actually fashion so they don’t date, the most common thing I hear is women telling me they hate shopping! Yet they enjoy shopping at my shop…..that they remember the first thing they bought say 20 years ago and how they still wear it or how they have handed it on to someone else who loves it.

My 20 year old daughter has inherited pieces which I wore before she was born! I think people are so disconnected from community they really crave an actual encounter with someone who carefully curates and makes something from start to finish. Owning something individual, made to be worn over and over and still looking forward to wearing it again. Now thats what I call sustainable clothing.

visit my website http://www.lisastack.com or join my mailing list if you’d like to know more about our in house events

Thank you to the stunning models... Lisa Stack, daughter Shizuoka, Renata And Margaret Atkin and Annelies Jahn