‘Our future is planned’: Bachelor Locky opens up about life with Irena

Last year’s The Bachelor Locky Gilbert has opened up about life on the road in Queensland with winner Irena Srbinovska.

Bachelor couple Locky Gilbert and Irena Srbinovska will spend the next month road-tripping through Queensland, with Gilbert saying they’ve committed to spending the rest of their lives together.

After the global pandemic shut down the former Bachelor’s Bali adventure business, the couple, who met on the Channel 10 dating show last year, have spent the last four months travelling Australia together, and arrived in Queensland last week.

They began by linking up with Gold Coast activewear brand LSKD for a hot-air balloon ride over the Gold Coast hinterland on Tuesday morning, during which Gilbert went skydiving.

Locky Gilbert, with girlfriend Irena Srbinovska, in the Gold Coast Hinterland in local Gold Coast activewear brand, LSKD.

“We’ve been going around Australia working with local companies trying to help out and get the tourism back running, just see the places that are still going and ready for business,” Gilbert told Confidential.

“We’ve just got into Queensland. We’ve got about a month to see this beautiful state.”

The couple plan to travel from Fraser Island to the Whitsundays followed by Cairns and the Daintree, all the way to Cape York over the next month.

It came after the pandemic shut down his Bali adventure company with no certainty around when he can return.

“Hopefully that picks up because all my staff are struggling. But it’s given me enough time for me and Irena to travel and just be with each other,” he said.

“We haven’t spent many days apart but we are absolutely loving it. We’re finding out the best and the worst bits about each other, but we couldn’t be happier.”

Locky Gilbert took a hot-air balloon to skydive over the Gold Coast Hinterland in local Gold Coast activewear brand, LSKD.

When it came to the constant break up and engagement rumours that plague Bachelor couples, Gilbert said: “We just ignore it. We have a chuckle if we see it”.

“Everyone (we meet) is like ‘Oh it actually works’. We’re nearly one year on and we’ve got all our future pretty much planned so there’s no sign of splitting up at all,” he added.

“We’re going to do another four months of travelling and then head back to WA. Irena is going to go back to nursing and I have a few things planned so we will set up a base in WA and start our life there.”

Gilbert said while Srbinovska kept him in line, he was proud of her stepping outside her comfort zone,

“I threw her in the deep end with shark diving … she’s been abseiling, rock-climbing, skydiving, the list goes on and she just keeps impressing me,” he said.

MOVING ON UP

A popular Australian activewear brand is moving into Brisbane’s luxury shopping precinct, setting a challenge for international powerhouse Lululemon.

Nimble Activewear, a sustainable brand created by friends Vera Yan and Katia Santilli, will open its first Queensland store on James St on May 12, directly opposite the refurbished Lululemon store.

The expansion, the company’s third store alongside Bondi Beach and Melbourne locations, comes following a 60 per cent increase online from Queenslanders last year, with Leisel Jones, Jules Neale, and Bec Cvilikas among the local customers.

Australian sustainable activewear label, Nimble Activewear expands into QLD with James Street store

“Launching our first Queensland store marks a personal milestone for Katia and I, and for Nimble. We had been looking for the perfect site for a couple of years and while the pandemic put a temporary pause on these plans, as soon as we found our James Street space we knew we had to pounce,” Yan told Confidential.

“Queenslanders are fashion savvy, they don’t tend to follow trends and aren’t afraid to wear colour and bold prints. Last year it was our Queensland customers who were the biggest buyers of our bike shorts, cementing their popularity and making bike shorts the best-selling style across our collection”

Nimble custom engineers sustainable performance fabrics using recycled plastic bottles, with each activewear set saving around ten plastic bottles from ending up in landfill or waterways.

The James St store will feature an experiential sustainability wall feature which explains the step by step process.

“We are also excited to be working with a local designer on a bespoke and sustainable in store feature,” Yan said.

ROOFTOP INVASION

A crowd of Brisbane high flyers mingled at the exclusive launch party of Fortitude Valley’s ritzy new venue Iris Rooftop Bar & Restaurant on Thursday.

In a boost for the new venue, more than 300 high powered guests jostled to get a peak at the rooftop bar including droves of wealthy property developers and hospitality players such as Bekaa’s Ronnie Tarabay with designer Natalia Lampante and John Gambaro.

Prominent businessman Matthew Youn travelled from the Gold Coast to attend the event alongside his partner, well-known Brisbane designer Gina Kim.

In pictures: Iris rooftop bar launch

Natalia Lampante and Sophie Wallace at the Iris Rooftop Bar launch party

Amy and Emma Sheppard at the Iris Rooftop Bar launch party

Confidential heard guests were still trying to RSVP to the sought-after party as the night was getting underway.

Iris, which overlooks Fortitude Valley, is Ghanem Group’s second dining destination at the top of Hotel X, following the opening of restaurant Bisou Bisou.

A dancer dressed entirely in gold danced in a novelty cocktail glass to a DJ set as guests mingled poolside and in private booths before spending the night at the luxury Hotel X and enjoying a recovery breakfast at Bisou Bisou.

Other Brisbane identities who made the guest list included Amy and Emma Sheppard, Nova presenters David Lutteral and Kip Wightman, and Christie and Luke Serhan.

BY DESIGN

A Brisbane designer has used a grant prize from the local council to create a fashion line that pays homage to the city.

Iris Hall will this week launch her brand Gumnut, which features prints about Brisbane and Australian culture including the Story Bridge, city cats and colloquialisms such as “head like a half sucked mango”, as well as Brisbane Bingo tote bag.

Iris Hall is the owner of ‘gumnut’ which is a Brisbane based and owned brand which has a major focus on print design- specifically prints about Brisbane

“In Australia we have a very Eurocentric view of fashion and we typically think of Australian fashion as quite daggy or unfashionable,” Hall said. “However, in Australia and in Brisbane we share an incredibly unique, irreverent larrikinism which underlies all of our nationally shared experiences … and it needs to be celebrated.”

Hall graduated her design degree at QUT, where she now works as a tutor part time, in 2019 with first class honours, before receiving grant money from the Brisbane City Council, which she put towards the Gumnut collection.

She will launch the brand at an event at The Station in Fortitude Valley on Saturday night with the products on sale at the venue and on social media.