Top Sydney fashion designer Marnine Skillings calls it quits

SYDNEY fashion designer Marnine Skillings has decided to call it quits -blaming the sluggish retail market as one of the reasons.

Marnie Skilling

SYDNEY fashion designer Marnine Skillings has decided to call it quits -- blaming the sluggish retail market as one of the reasons to wind up both her Paddington and online boutiques in the coming months.

Having launched her eponymous fashion brand in 2000, the respected designer has featured regularly on the Australian Fashion Week catwalks and become a favourite label for celebrities, including Kylie Minogue, Julia Stone and Nicole Kidman.

"I just felt after 12 years it was time to try something new and give myself more time to say 'yes' to some of the opportunities I've had to turn down in the past," she told The Sunday Telegraph.

Skillings said the downturn in consumer spending was also a reason behind her decision to shut up shop. "Of course that's a factor in my decision," she said.

"Anybody who said that that wasn't something you had to consider at that time, was being dishonest. You have to be smart and realistic as a business owner and think which direction is going to be more feasible for me.

"It's one of the realities of the fashion industry at the moment and I'm evolving with those changes." Skillings isn't the only Australian designer who has felt the effects of poor retail performance in recent months, with brands including Little Joe, Bettina Liano and Fletcher Jones close to collapse after being placed in the hands of administrators. Skillings said her work as a creative consultant, stylist and trend forecaster would

keep her busy once the internationally-stocked label wound down, but it was time for her to move on from running the brand which needed complete dedication.

"The whole time I've had my label I'd done different creative consulting work, styling, trend forecasting and brand work with different labels and a few different advertising agencies and in the past couple of years I was getting more creative nourishment and satisfaction out of that work," she said.

Having given birth to her first child, Costa, last year, the Bondi-based designer said she was also looking forward to spending more time at home with him.

"I'm excited to have time to do all of these other things and be happy, and be a great mother and have a life," she said. "I'm looking forward to see what adventures come my way." The news has come as a shock to members of the fashion industry, considering Skillings showed at Australian Fashion Week.

"It was a surprise, but a lot of people don't realise there's a lot of work involved in running a label than just working on your collections," designer Gary Bigeni said.