Pip Edwards on bikinis, her next move and personal heartbreak: ‘Sh*t, where does that leave me?’
Fashion mogul Pip Edwards opens up about her teenage son leaving home and the real reason she is putting her name to her latest project.
Pip Edwards is arguably one of Australian fashion’s most recognisable names.
Yet the designer and creative director has never put that famous name to a collection (although the brand she co-founded in 2016, P.E Nation, did nod to her initials).
All that is set to change, however. For the first time in her career, Edwards is lending both her moniker and her vision to a collaboration with swimwear label Bond-Eye.
The reason? “I’m a beach girl, I wear Bond-Eye all the time, I’m a Bondi girl,” she says.
For the campaign, the 45-year-old herself has chosen to model the swimwear, and the pictures are designed to look like paparazzi shots.
“The paps love taking photos of me down at the beach. I can’t escape it. So it’s saying, this is what you’ve built around my experience at the beach, let’s play it back to you, in a very elevated, chic way. I may as well stand tall in who I am.”
Despite appearances, feeling confident in swimwear isn’t always easy for Edwards.
“I don’t know if it’s because I know the paps might be there [at the beach], I have to work harder,” she explains.
“I know 100 per cent of the time something is going to happen because they’re just there, so it’s like they’re keeping me on my toes. Maybe I should thank them.”
The new project comes at a time of transformation for Edwards.
In July, the mum-of-one travelled to the US to move her son Justice into college in California. “I was grieving this process for months leading up to it,” she tells Stellar.
“He’d do something amazing and I’d just burst into tears. I was like, ‘I’m not going to see this, or he’s not gonna talk to me about that. Who’s going to be around to hear me or talk to me?’” Justice, who turns 19 next month, is an aspiring basketball player.
“As soon as we got to his college, it was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had with him, because I could see the joy in him,” Edwards adds proudly.
“Seeing him on the court. Meeting his coach. He’s so ready to fly and go. I was in awe of him.”
For Edwards, who raised Justice as a single parent, now is the first time she is experiencing living alone.
“I’ve been thinking, did I do too good a job that he kind of flew the coop a bit too quickly?” she muses.
“But isn’t this what we do it for? Facilitate the dream that you want him to do – and then he does it, and you’re like, ‘S**t, where does that leave me?
“What’s my purpose now?’ I’ve been sleeping in his bed. Just adjusting to the emptiness in the house. There’s a big energy missing.”
The pair still talk multiple times a day. But, as Edwards explains, “No-one prepares you for what the next chapter of parenthood looks like, especially as a single parent. Justice has been with me from birth.”
Coming home “to a soulless house has been really hard, I have to admit,” Edwards shares through tears.
And so she decided to sell the Sydney home she and Justice shared in the eastern suburbs. “I’ve just got to start new memories – I’ve got to start a new chapter. I don’t want to be reminded of this void,” she says.
“He’s creating new memories; I’ve got to do the same.” It’s a new start she’s calling “Piphood”.
Also, poignantly, this new version of Edwards has coincided with her returning to Ksubi – where she started out in fashion two decades ago, after leaving a job at an accountancy firm – this time as creative director. Edwards worked in public relations for the brand before moving into womenswear.
The label not only launched her career, but it’s where she met Justice’s father, designer Dan Single.
“It was a bit of a sliding doors moment to be honest, this fashion world. When I left the corporate world, I remember at the time I was doing a lot of singing with Sneaky Sound System. There was just a moment where it could have gone either way,” she recalls.
“It was always going to be fashion, but who knows, I could have been a pop star. God, sometimes I think I’m a pop star in my own shower.”
Edwards says despite this being an emotional time in her life, she’s also very excited about what the future holds.
“I know I’ve done a really good job with Justice so I can surrender a bit now,” she says.
“I’ve always had to be holding the fort, holding strong, doing all the things. I think it’s been really important for us to be apart so he can actually see how much I’ve done.
“He just misses me all the time. I know he does.”
And while there are no immediate plans to move overseas, she says that’s a big thing she wants to experience in this phase of her life.
“I’ve been here [in Sydney] to raise my child but now I can be out in the world a little bit more – which in turn is so great for my creativity and productivity.
“I’m really great when I’m out feeling and experiencing the world, and I just know there’s a little tug and a pull,” she says, before adding with a laugh, “obviously there’s going to be a tug and pull to get me to the US.”
See the full cover shoot with Pip Edwards in the new issue of Stellar, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar and the podcast Something To Talk About, click here.
