Designer Lisa Gorman leaves the Factory X-backed brand

Melbourne designer Lisa Gorman will leave the label she founded, in a surprise announcement. The label has been backed by David Heeney’s Factory X company since 2009.

Designer Lisa Gorman, right, with a model is leaving the label she founded 22 years ago. Picture: David Caird

Australian designer Lisa Gorman has announced she “will be leaving” her namesake Gorman label.

The brand was founded 22 years ago by Gorman, and has been backed by David Heeney’s Factory X company since 2009.

It is unclear at this stage what the circumstances were leading up to Gorman’s departure.

However, the announcement has echoes of another in recent Australian history; Factory X is the same company that backs the Alannah Hill brand, from which its founding designer Alannah Hill departed in 2013.

Factory X owns a number of additional brands including Jack London and Dangerfield.

Lisa Gorman. Picture: Amelia Stawix

In a statement released Thursday, Gorman said: “It is with some emotion, and a lot of gratitude, that I will be leaving my position as creative director of the Gorman Brand.

“The Gorman label has achieved a level of recognition within the Australian fashion landscape that I could not have imagined when I started out in 1999.”

The brand is best known for its naïvely colourful prints in collaboration with artists including Mirka Mora, Rachel Castle and those from the Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Aboriginal Corporation.

Gorman thanked her “incredible design team, all my staff, partners and the 114 artists I have had the pleasure of collaborating with over two decades”.

Magkaja X Gorman collaboration. Picture: Charles Fréger

“This chapter has now closed for me personally, making way for new creative endeavours.”

In the joint statement, Heeney thanked her “for her enormous contribution over the many years in building up the Gorman label”.

There had been a number of reports at the time around circumstances leading to Hill’s departure, including a backlash to comments the designer made in relation to the sexual harassment case against then David Jones chief executive Mark McInnes three years earlier.

Heeney conceded in an interview in 2013: “We were not seeing eye to eye on a lot of things”; Hill said she would not “compromise” on her direction for the brand.

Neither Gorman nor Heeney was available for further comment. 

Originally published as Designer Lisa Gorman leaves the Factory X-backed brand