The Spotted Quoll Boutique to open second Tasmanian store
The “final piece” of the puzzle has fallen into place for the owner of a sustainable Tasmanian clothing label with customers Australia-wide, as she announces her second island state store.
Launceston
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In 2009, Launceston slow fashion designer Tamika Bannister had “sold her soul”, working a well-remunerated but ho-hum job in sales and marketing for a top global consumer electronics brand.
“I sold boxes of things that meant nothing, completely soulless, I did it purely for the money and nothing else,” she told the Mercury.
“I felt empty, exhausted, like there was no point to anything anymore, although I earnt really good money.”
Fast forward to now and she has just revealed her popular sustainable clothing label, The Spotted Quoll Studio, is just weeks away from opening its second boutique, in her home city’s Quadrant Mall.
The new location, which follows on five years on from the opening of the first store at Hobart’s Liverpool St, will see three small, disused tenancies in the flagging mall be converted into an airy, light-filled space.
“It’s a very beautiful heritage building with old windows, it really fits with our ethos and style,” she said.
That ethos is to create beautiful, ethical wares featuring original designs and produced in an environmentally sustainable manner and it is one that has captured the hearts and wallets of not just Tasmanians, but thoughtful consumers Australia-wide.
“We ship all around the world, we’ve got customers in every state and town in Australia,” Ms Bannister said.
“We are actually one of the first places they come to visit when they’re in Tasmania. They’ll say, ‘Hi, I’m Mary from NSW, I’ve been shopping with you for five years.’
“That’s the moment you realise the long hours and stress are actually worth it.”
The new Launceston store represents the “final piece of the puzzle clicking into place” for Spotted Quoll, which now employs 15 people – not including the new hires needed for the Launceston store.
Last year, Spotted Quoll bucked the trends of both Covid and the decline in Australian manufacturing to open a factory on Henry St in the former Old Launceston Armory building.
Spotted Quoll now produces the majority of its clothing in-house, with lofty goals to eventually manufacture all its apparel from the facility.
Despite the at-times bumpy ride – “some days I pinch myself and some days I pull my hair out” – Ms Bannister said it is hard to imagine her previous life as a corporate suit.
“I love what I do, if I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t have made it this far,” she said.
“There’s a lot of joy in what I do, even though I earn a lot less (than I did).
“But there’s no joy in money.”
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