Alemais launches into a new fashion adventure
Even friends of Lesleigh Jermanus thought she was crazy to set up a label during a pandemic, but the call to join the ‘change generation’ proved too strong.
Stirring the pot is something that Lesleigh Jermanus is happy to do, both figuratively and literally with her new label Alemais.
While working on new designs from home, “I’m trialling pieces (from the collection), wearing a dress while cooking at the stove — I just keep stirring the pot.”
Many would say that starting up a fashion brand during a global pandemic was nothing short of folly. Luckily, Jermanus decided to trust her instincts rather than listen to naysayers.
“I was mostly discouraged by friends and colleagues, out of fear of the unknown,” Jermanus tells The Australian. “People did tell me I was pretty crazy at the beginning of a pandemic, with lots of businesses closing doors.
Alemais launches on Monday (alemais.com): in its first season it has been picked up in Australia by David Jones and The Iconic as well as a number of independent boutiques, and internationally at retailers including London’s Browns and Harrods, and in the Middle East at Bloomingdales Kuwait, Harvey Nichols Dubai, and Ounass.com. Online trunk show site Moda Operandi has recently featured the debut collection, and in its second season it will add British department stores Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.
“I’m really humbled by the response, I didn’t expect so many retailers to pick up on the first collection,” she said.
Jermanus was spurred on to launch her own label after working in the industry for more than 20 years, including in the design teams of Zimmermann, Marcs, Nicholas and Alice McCall. Working as a freelancer when COVID-19 hit Australia, “all the work dried up, friends were stood down, no one was getting jobs”.
She wasn’t the only one feeling the impacts of the pandemic. Calls for help from suppliers she had worked with throughout her career, as far afield as India and China, and the Vietnamese maker community in Melbourne and Sydney, were the real kickstart she needed to finally launch a new label. (The name is a combination of her name, a small brand she had 20 years ago, Lesleigh May, and an A to represent a new beginning.)
“It started with a lot of distress within the industry from suppliers — brands had cancelled orders, resulting in abandoned stock. Everyone was in a state of despair. They reached out looking for help to find solutions to move stock and raw materials. It was a natural progression and feeling obliged to help suppliers that marked the birth of the brand.”
With so much talk around sustainability and ethics within the fashion industry in recent years, Jermanus wanted to personally reassess what she wanted to achieve if she was to stay a part of it. Some garments that had been made and abandoned were absorbed into the collection or upcycled into new items, such as turning a denim jacket into a dress, while abandoned fabrics and deadstock were snapped up to create fresh designs.
“I’d been on the hamster wheel for so long. I felt that through all my years of experience working for brands, this is an opportunity to create a brand of integrity, with my most authentic, creative voice. I thought I should be taking advantage of this moment to do the right thing. I should be part of the change generation.”
The three main pillars supporting the brand vision are being responsible, artisanal and empowering: “(We’re) striving to be as sustainable and ethical as we can; preserving craft and traditional techniques; and being as empowering as we can be to our suppliers — and the women and men that wear the brand.”
The resulting collection taps into Jermanus’s love for vintage pieces and textiles: “I love the feeling when you wear something vintage, it changes the way you feel. How do you make something today that’s contemporary but still has that feeling?”
Certainly prints and textiles have played a leading role here, whether in wallpaper prints, “off” colours, and handwork, whether embroidery or printing. “It has quite a ’70s feel. We have hand marbling in there by artists in Rajasthan, (from which) every single piece is unique.”
Natural linen, cotton and lace feature heavily and feel beautiful to the touch. Silhouettes are relaxed, and highlights of the 49-piece debut collection include ruffled hem maxidresses, an oversized shirtdress with contrasting print patch pockets, and details including rikrak trims, puffed sleeves and cut-outs.
“There’s never not a detail,” says Jermanus with a laugh. “It’s definitely a slow label, nothing churn and burn about this brand.”
The price point starts at $250 and goes up to $580; a few more expensive pieces were available for pre-order on Moda Operandi.
She is currently discussing future collaborations with a group of artisans called Soko Kenya, which was set up to find gainful employment for women at risk and to maintain traditional skills for a global commercial audience.
In 2018, she went to Kenya with the group for six months to help set up a sewing hub in the local community, which now employs close to 100 women.
To keep on the path towards sustainability, Jermanus is trying to reduce the fledgling company’s ecological and carbon footprint as much as possible, step by step.
That includes using compostable packaging, carbon offsets, and partnering with organisations to plant a tree for each sale.
“When you do more, you know more,” says Jermanus of her journey.
“When you start to compromise on those things, it’s time to leave the building.”
Safe to say she is determined to stay in the building — and keep stirring that pot.
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