Lindsay Ridings to launch debut collection at Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane

The golden age of glamour lives on in Lindsay Ridings’ debut collection set to be unveiled at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane.

She’s a corporate contract specialist who moonlights as a fashion designer but now Lindsay Ridings is getting serious about her side hustle — her debut collection will be unveiled at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane next week.

“It’s sort of a cross between Palm Springs ’50s, the desert house with the ladies lounging by the pool, and the Lake Como ’50s and ’60s,” Lindsay says of her mid-century inspired collection.

Initially thinking a career in fashion design was “unrealistic”, the 37-year-old did a law degree and works full-time as a senior contract specialist at Shell.

“But I have always designed. My grandma taught me to sew basic things when I used to stay over at her house. First I designed clothes on paper dolls, then I sewed clothes for my Barbies,” she says.

Lindsay Ridings will launch her debut collection and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival. Photo: Russell Shakespeare

“Then, as I got older, I started sewing clothes for myself. I was designing dresses and gowns in biology class, so that should have signalled something for me.”

After high school at Clayfield College, Lindsay studied business and law at QUT, but kept a foot in the fashion world through modelling.

“I started modelling at 17 or 18, and during uni I was doing flights down to Sydney and Melbourne and taking my laptop down with me to study,” she says.

“Then I deferred uni and moved to New York for three months and attended castings for Calvin Klein and Esprit.

“I’m still a model to this day and I’ve always been on the books at Vivien’s.”

Years later it was Lindsay’s talent as a designer that turned heads — trackside — when her ladylike ensembles led to her becoming something of a race day style leader.

Lindsay has been travelling to racing carnivals all over the country since 2015, taking out prestigious fashions on the field prizes year after year in clothes she has designed and made herself.

Lindsay at Stradbroke Cup Day, 2018.

“Fashions on the field has given my work a platform to be seen,” says Lindsay, who lives at Ashgrove with partner Glenn, a military major.

“There’s been a lot of support, and a lot of people coming out of the woodwork and asking if they can buy my dresses or if I can make them something.”

The interest prompted her to “give it a go” at MBFF Brisbane, an annual showcase of local and national design talent.

“I just threw my hat in the ring,” she says.

Meeting the MBFF deadline has been a challenge, with Lindsay having only a few months to complete her collection for the Group 1 Show on Aug 27.

Lindsay ridings in a dress she made for Derby Day at Flemington, 2015. Picture: Jason Edwards

“I have to really compartmentalise. So, when I’m at work during the day I have to be fully there and focused, and then when I get home I have to section out hours to work on my collection,” she says.

“It’s the shift in brains — like right to left brain. It’s quite exhausting; I didn’t realise just how much it would take out of me.”

Her debut Spring/Summer collection, constructed with the help of a local dressmaker, features classic silhouettes.

“The collection is really an extension of what I wear every day, but much higher glam,” Lindsay says.

Mercedes-Benz Group 1 Show, Aug 28, 7pm, Howard’s Hall, Howard Smith Wharves, city. For tickets and full program, Aug 25-29, mbff.com.au