Latest / Project Emerald Collective / Reclaiming Your Style & Power Through Circular Fashion with Leuca Jane Ziemons
Transcript
- Eve: how much damage do you think fashion has done by asking women to fit the clothes instead of making clothes to fit women? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Well, I think it goes a lot further than fashion itself. it's an entire system where the opportunities to be fully oneself have been stripped over decades. I think every woman or female identifying person who has looked at pictures of females in magazines on the television and movies and stuff. It's such a warped sense of how real women actually look. I think there are many, many aspects of our society that need to be addressed and acknowledged before we can move forward with just the clothes themselves. Eve: Welcome to the Project Emerald Collective. I'm your host, Eve McIntyre. Every week I sit down with women who have chosen to live differently. Designers, founders, creatives, psychologists, adventurers and change makers. People asking bigger questions about how we live, work, create and connect. These conversations aren't really about fashion. They're about living with intention. finding the courage to be yourself and discovering what becomes possible when you stop living by expectation and start living by choice. If that's the kind of life you're creating too, you're in the right place. Now let's go. Today we're joined by Leuca Simons, founder of Melaluca Rise. So Leuca is an interdisciplinary artist, textile designer, and educator whose work sits beautifully at the intersection of fashion, storytelling, and healing. And I'm so honoured to be in the Circular Fashion Festival Incubator with Leuca, and I can't wait to see her. designs on the runway at the Circular Fashion Festival happening this October. So Leuca, welcome. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Thank you. Eve: I always like to begin our interviews with the many hats that we wear. So because none of us are really defined by one title. can you talking us through the different hats that you wear today? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I mean, that one probably would take up the whole episode. yeah, I once actually realised that in terms of living the dream, if you take D-R-E-A-M, it's a perfect way of describing what I do because I'm a designer, a researcher, an educator, an artist and a mother. And that part is often missed out in when we're describing ourselves. Eve: Yeah. Leuca Jane Ziemons: And the mother part is essential to Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: how I approach my work. Eve: that is a really good way to look at it. can you talk us through the three pivotal moments that have completely changed the direction of your life? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I can't even put things into that specific away. I think the trajectory of our life has been so adventurous in that we've travelled all around the world and lived in lots of different places in lots of different countries. And I think that fundamentally just following our interests has been part of what is pivotal in creating the life that we've built together. And so I think fundamentally, a transformative part of life was simply meeting a partner who had spent his life travelling. And so I knew that my aspiration to do that would be continued. And because of that, it's led to opportunities. becoming a mother led to the opportunity for being really held by the core of what I wanted to do in my life, which was to raise humans. And because of that, I could pursue all of the aspects of my creativity in tandem with living that life. So that was pretty. pivotal. there's just so many moments of ordinariness that actually are really underestimated in how pivotal they can actually be. we're unlikely to say that, drinking this cup of tea is absolutely pivotal, but actually it is like having a cup of tea and being able to have... gratitude for living in a way that enables me to enjoy a full cup of warm tea. Like that's utterly pivotal. But we generally discount those sorts of things as being quite irrelevant to our story. Eve: I guess it's having that awareness though, to have that reflection of those everyday moments and the choices that have led you to be sitting in your home studio, and Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: having this conversation with that cup of tea. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yep, exactly. Eve: Mm, there's so much depth to just our cups of tea and wherever Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Yeah. Eve: we're having them and, who we're having them with Like it's all relevant. Hmm. Yeah, Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yes. Eve: that's a really good way to look at it actually. so I love the story behind Melaleuca Rise and that it wasn't just named after somewhere you lived. can you tell us about that story? Leuca Jane Ziemons: when we lived in Tasmania, which is like our first foray into, let's be self-sufficient and, grow our own veggies and do all of that stuff, which was about 10 years before we actually should have done it. And we lived on a homestead that was called Melalook Rise part of when I began the brand, was just trying to find something that for me held this, you know, really big ideas of us being a very, very small part of nature itself. And that as humans, we often position ourselves far and above every other aspect of nature. But Melaleuca Rise and the idea we were up on the top of the hill and we looked out over a landscape of trees that were here before us, would be here after us and were risen far above us. just seemed to really capture the idea of what I wanted to be able to do with having a business in clothing. Eve: And when did you set up the business? when was that idea born? Leuca Jane Ziemons: about 2017, I think. I was studying for my Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Fashion and Textiles. And I'd started that and then we moved to Tasmania and then we moved back to to WA. And at that point, I had the opportunity to be involved in the first Eco Fashion Week Australia runway. And we had the chance to put in some of our student collection, our graduate collection, which was super exciting. But at the same time, we had to write a whole heap of blurb about, you know, about our brand and all the rest of it. none of us had a brand. We didn't even know what any of that was. And so we had to come up with the name and, the ideas behind it. that was the point at which Melaleuca Rise I had thought was going to just be for that. part of that collection and that was going to be shown. And then I think about it more in depth later on, but it just it stayed because it landed so well in how I wanted to live life that it has never been. There's never been a moment where I've thought, I really want to change that name or, but the actual Melaleucarides itself is really always an unfolding. It's like an experiment, a project. It's never just one thing and it generally seems to resonate with the place in which we are. For example, just now, because we've moved down to the southwest of WA and I'm in very small rural community, it's asking something different of me. It's looking for something different from me. And so because it's never been this, one thing and then if I don't do that then it has to become something else. It's like, no, it's just always in a state of transformation. And so, yeah, it's been many different, many different things along the way. Eve: Yeah, it's really cool. I guess the designs inspiration is taken from where you're at that time. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I mean, think that each of the, each collection is deeply rooted in a narrative. And that narrative may have come to me through, through travels, through conversations, through experiences. And so the narrative itself is not necessarily linked to the place, but the story then unfolds as you work in relation to where you are. And so things will appear that are only appearing because of the place in which the work is being created. Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: my first collection was called Nomadic Nostalgia and it was very much this sense of not feeling grounded in the place in which we were living because we'd done so much moving, which was fine, but we always felt we would go back to Scotland. And so I never felt like I was disconnected from my home because we were always going back there after wherever we were living. But at that point, we kind of made the decision that WA was actually going to be home. And it was this, nostalgia for what I had left behind, but it was also a nomadic nostalgia because it was nostalgia for what it is to be somebody who travels, because that's a very different thing than what it is to sort of uproot yourself from one place and arrive in another. That's a very different thing from how we were living. a lot of the things came about even in the woven works, there was... There was a weaving that I'd done that was from our clan tartan and I'd purposefully left out the green because at that point where we were living I felt really I felt very much as though I was missing the green like missing the green of Scotland because it's everywhere. But then if I were to do that particular collection now, I am surrounded by green. Like I look out my window and it is just a blanket of green. And so that's what I mean about it. You the narrative comes in, but then the responses come from, what's around me at the time. Eve: Mm, and it's a mixture of the two. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: I've read that your garments hold stories. what stories are you hoping people carry when they wear your work? Leuca Jane Ziemons: I think a lot of it depends on just what I'm working with at the time and how the person has arrived in order to receive the work itself. So it could be that it's a singular exhibition and it's a narrative that comes from that and it could be a conversation that we've had, it could be a conversation about ancestral lineage, it could be a conversation about somebody who was very near and dear to them and by looking at some of the exhibition work that's maybe sparked a conversation and then that's then fed into a garment. It could be something that's come from a garment that's been created as a collection itself and then that piece then speaks to the collector themselves, so it could be something that's been dyed with natural plant dyes and created, washed in the river. So yeah, it's very, very individual. And I think that that's why my work is, it's limited edition. It's one of a kind. It's heritage clothing. It's not the kind of thing you just throw on and you're like, that feels fine. Off I go. And it's something that is consistently worked back into or rediscovered. I've got a whole thing. care to repair that comes with every garment and the idea is that through the continual transformation of a piece it stays within your family and within your life and so something that maybe no longer fits could be altered or it's mended or it's you know changed into something completely different and I just I love that idea that once it becomes yeah once it's part of you it just becomes more and more of you. the more you wear it, yeah. Eve: Hmm. That's really cool. So they're obviously garments designed to last you've touched on the ability for clothing to heal us, which fascinated me. So can you talk through therapeutic arts and the emotional connection and your opinion on how clothing has the ability to heal us? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I mean, it's a massive topic and it's part of my current doctoral studies. What I'm investigating and what I'm really trying to understand for myself is just how the making process forms part of how we show up in the world and how that the sort of the connection that we have to the cloth itself then becomes very much part of our sense of self. I mean, I think it very much, speaks back to what historically garments were in terms of how we present ourselves. I think we've kind of diluted as a society in many ways. areas of the world, we've diluted what it is to actually dress with a sense of self. And Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: I feel that the more we are connected to the way in which a garment makes us feel, then the Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: more connected we are internally in how we feel about ourselves. it reaches beyond it reaches beyond the idea of just looking good. think, you Eve: Uh-huh. Leuca Jane Ziemons: know, the fashion has this really ugly way of determining what people should and shouldn't wear. And Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: I'm kind of like the antithesis of that. It's like, you know, I want people to have the opportunity to use my mind in its creative ways so they can... pick and choose from, you know, I love the way that that drapes there. I love the way that sleeve looks there. But then this becomes part of something that makes them feel they look the way they feel on the inside. And that often Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: there's a real mismatch between that. And I think increasingly as you age, there is a real mismatch between how one feels on the inside by comparison to how one feels, you know, we present to other people. And so that's one of my passions is, you know, having that retort when somebody looks at a piece and, you know, I couldn't wear that. Because generally you'll find that a lot of it comes back to simply that that particular piece has been seen on a body. that doesn't make that person feel like they have that body. Well, the only thing wrong with that is the clothing, right? That's not the body. So we Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: to be looking at ways in which that piece of clothing, what was it that spoke to you? What was it that made you feel like, I love the way that looks, and then bridging that gap between that and how it can feel on your body. You know, for Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: your height, for your weight, for your, you know, the bits that you love about yourself, the bits that you're not so keen about, you know, how do we make that piece work for you? And that's, yeah, I think that's so exciting. It's so exciting to see somebody put on something that actually presents them in the way that they feel on the inside. Yeah, I love that. Eve: Mm, absolutely. It's just a totally different way to think about fashion. And unfortunately, traditionally fashion's not been sold that way. it comes along with many insecurities for people and constant conditioning, by society that we're not good enough unless we have the latest trend and unless we look a certain way. And I feel like the time is now to change that and to have, more connection internally with how does it make me feel? Like, you know, what do I want to wear? What suits me? Project Emerald Collective is taking that power that you have back and using it to make intentional choices that, are serving you in in a more positive way. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Mm. Yeah, absolutely. Eve: circular fashion's so much more than just sustainability. most people I guess think that circular fashion's about recycling, but it's so much more than that. can you talk us through what circular fashion really means to you? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I mean, think for me, because I'm ancient, right? like I, for circular fashion, know, it's something that has always been part of how I have approached the making process. So for many young emerging designers, the idea of, using this sort of theoretical dead stock, which there isn't actually such thing as dead stock. But this idea of recycling, upcycling, and using, and reusing, and all this sort of stuff, for me it's like, well, that just is common sense. If you're born and bred in Scotland, and you were raised in the 1970s, you are going to reuse your stuff. And for me, it's simply a way of being. And so when I was little, about four years old. and my mum had made me a beautiful dress for a party. Now, at that point, we wore that party dress to literally every party we went to. Now, that in itself was enough if I was just wearing it when I was four. I was wearing the same dress when I was about eight or nine. Now, one would think, you know, how on earth could you do that? Because surely you grew a little bit between Eve: Yeah. Leuca Jane Ziemons: those ages. Literally inside the dress, it was a dress and there was a skirt part. Inside the skirt part there was a double folded lining that just kept getting let out. And so by the time I was quite literally too large to wear this dress, I had managed to wear it over a period of like four or five years because that was built in to the garment itself. And so, when I had my own children, I would never buy my son a pair of trousers that were only going to work for that period of time I'd always buy them slightly longer slightly bigger and I would use this wonderful elastic where it has little buttonholes in it so you would Eve: Yeah. Leuca Jane Ziemons: just let the elastic out And then I would hem it, but I would double hem it so that the baseline of the trousers was always at the floor level. And then you just let that out. And then, that's why these clothes then become so damn precious because you've seen them over such a long period of time. And so then when, garments are coming to the end of their worn life, then they become part of something else. And so for my family, they've got numerous quilts that we will laughing, know, laugh together, sit laughing together and just reminisce about, you know, this top that you used to wear, this pair of trousers or these little pajamas. it's a wonderful thing to like wrap yourself in all of those memories. So yeah. So for me, circularity is simply just the acknowledgement that, clothing is something that you have. throughout life, it's not something you have for a season, it's something you have throughout your life, Eve: absolutely. I don't think it was just Scotland that was experiencing that repair culture back in Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: the seventies because I remember my mum making my dresses that we wore to parties Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: and she didn't go the length of the double hem Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: for my sisters and I. But she was certainly making our clothes. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Hmm. Eve: and I just feel like it's Just a world away from where we are now. Leuca Jane Ziemons: I was involved in sort of the very beginning stages of what has become the fast fashion system. But even within that, so I started working at Miss Selfridge, which was, high street fashion brand, Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: very well known. But even working in there, I ended up doing, I was doing my first degree in business at the time and my thesis was actually all about how we could treat people, looking at the staff members, how we could treat people in such a way that made them feel that they were part of something more like a family than an employee. even back, I mean, that would have been in the 90s, early 90s, even at that stage. being so involved in fashion and loving being in the fashion space, it was still the people that I was really, really interested in, and that idea of how, kindness and thoughtfulness and listening and all of those things that have just sat with me throughout my life, they were there, when I was very young. And so even though, I saw... what we felt at the time was quite exciting because there was all these new looks that were coming in. But even then it was still seasonal looks. It was summer, or it was winter, or you had autumn or spring. And so that was as fast as it got at that stage. Eve: I've read you see repair as a peaceful act of rebellion, which I loved. why rebellion? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Well, so being a fiery redhead, right? You Eve: Yeah. Leuca Jane Ziemons: know, I've been told many times in my life, to kind of quieten it down a bit. So the way I look at rebellion now is I've kind of softened with the ways of helping people to see the other ways that we can do things, okay? So. So when I was younger I might have been just a little bit more bold and you know almost pedestal standing you know Hark! Listen to me I have something to tell you all! But then over time you realise that actually that just goes in one ear and out the other So now I kind of tend to look at meaningful acts as gentle ways to rebel against the things that I feel are not benefiting, whether it's our lived experience or being a human or being in part of nature. Anything that I'm feeling that's just not supportive of a beautiful system, then perhaps doing these small, quite quiet ways can have a greater impact. so things like, you know, even... with my own grown children now, you they wouldn't dream of getting rid of something that they liked just because there was no button on it or the zip had broken. I mean, my daughter's a perfect example. She stole a pair of boots from me a few years ago, which looked lovely on her and I never saw them back. But the zip's broken. countless times and it's just repaired over and over again. And so, you know, she's a young, beautiful, fashionable woman out there doing her thing. And yet because of these gentle acts of repair, she recognises that your first go to is how can I fix that? You Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: know, as opposed to that's broken. And so if we think about that in a much broader way rather than thinking of a system as broken, if we see it as something that we have the capacity to repair, then Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: it rebels against this idea that we are completely helpless and we just have to live with it the way it is. Eve: Yeah. yeah, that frustrates me as well. I feel like we have so much agency as women and potentially Leuca Jane Ziemons: Mmm. Eve: we've forgotten that we have that and that we can Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: if we take conscious steps, we can actually make a massive difference. Not only to our own lives but our families' lives. And I think if we approached it like a collective effort, then I would love to see what we can create together. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, but I think that people need to be supported within that because I think also lot of the things that we've lost are the family support, the much wider Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: network of family support and particularly with people being, whether it's through choice or being displaced or through many of the reasons that people might end up in other places, you know, we have to acknowledge that it's not as simple as, well, let's get together as a community and do this, because quite often people are displaced from the community itself. And so I think by just having these ways of thinking, it just generates ideas for there being a different way, a different approach. it can be in the form of repair, but then that conversation could lead to, the experience of somebody mothering a small child and feeling unsupported. And you've got... somebody right next to them who's an elderly lady, for example, who doesn't have children nearby, maybe her grown children have moved. And there's like this bringing together of people because you're realistically looking at repairing a broken system through doing that. Eve: Yeah, I think we should all embrace our inner rebel. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Mmm. Eve: So designing for real women, can you talk us through that side of the your inspiration? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I I think that it's something I probably didn't consider when I was younger because I was in the position of having the physical body to be able to go into a shop and buy something and put it on my body. But I think as I've gotten older, I've really reflected upon what it is to feel comfortable in your body. what you're walking about in when you're in your 20s certainly isn't something that I would necessarily be wearing now, but I want to feel the same way about myself. And so I think that a lot of women, particularly reaching the age of 50 or even sometimes in their 40s, there are definite shifts in your physical body. And so... If you're continually trying to dress for a body that isn't there anymore, it just leads to a great amount of frustration. And I think there's enough frustration that comes in during Perry Menopause life that you don't need to be frustrated by your clothing. And so what I tend to do is I have various ways that people can find the work that I make. And so, for example, quite recently I had some work in a local boutique and I made it very clear they had little cards on each and every piece saying, know, like this might not be the piece for your body. Let's talk about that. Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: I make it shorter, longer. I can add sleeves. I can raise the neckline. can look, you know. So it really began these conversations and it was a bit of an experiment because up until that point, I'd very much only ever sold my work as a face-to-face experience with a client. But what was amazing from this was the feedback from the owner of the boutique was that, instead of people doing what they were doing with many other pieces, which was... that's far too long for me. That's not gonna look any good. that's not in my size. That's not gonna look any good. It literally was then a phone call and we would have that conversation. And you know, I was dressing a lovely woman who was going to the UK for her son's wedding. And yeah, what was on the shelf was never going to fit that body. What Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: then became the piece that she collected fitted. beautifully and just Eve: Yeah. Leuca Jane Ziemons: seeing, this woman wearing this piece and twirling like inside the shop twirling and it was just like, yes, you know? And so for me it's about having those connections and making those conversations happen in a way that, yeah, you can start twirling. Eve: Love that. Leuca Jane Ziemons: You Eve: More twirling. Regardless of the age. Because you can you Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yes, more firmly. Yeah. Eve: see little kids doing that and like obviously it can happen at any age. Like clothing Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yes! Eve: has the ability to have that power on you when you find the perfect garment. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, absolutely. Eve: So, Leuca, how much damage do you think fashion has done by asking women to fit the clothes instead of making clothes to fit women? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Well, I think it goes a lot further than fashion itself. think it's an entire system where the opportunities to be fully oneself have been stripped over decades. And so I think every woman or female identifying person who has looked at pictures of females in magazines on the television and movies and stuff. It's such a warped sense of how real women actually look. I think there are many, many aspects of our society that need to be addressed and acknowledged before we can move forward with just the clothes themselves. I think there's an awful lot more layers. to that than simply the clothes. think the fashion industry for me has, it's become something that is very far removed from what fashion itself can be. Because to be fashionable, this idea of creating pieces and walking in such a way that makes you feel that you have your own internal style. You know, that is the essence of being fashionable, right? But it's become this very diluted and one would hope a completely redundant system in ways of clothing bodies. I think its days are very much numbered. But I am an eternal optimist, but I'm an optimist that puts action behind what I do. So for me, because I'm in a position where, you know, I can run a business. in a way that would not be able to raise. I couldn't have, you know, raise my family, you know, pay for my house and all the rest of it. I'm always completely transparent about the approach that I have to the things that I do, that they are in a supported network. And so for me, that's why education is such a huge part of what I do, because if I was to be running Melalewka Rise, making clothes day and night, I would very, very quickly lose the essence of what it is I'm actually trying to achieve here. Eve: Mm. Well Leuca Jane Ziemons: you see that so often and that's why I've always been really, really transparent about, I was a teacher before I went into fashion at all, you know, my career was in teaching and so, I've always relied upon having, a very much a portfolio approach to how I have my life. And I think that the disservice that is often done to young designers, is giving them this, very expensive education, expensive in the sense of what debt they have to come out with, this glorified idea that you're going to come out and walk into Givenchy or Alexander McQueen, you know, it's just nonsense. So I think, you know, I've always been really clear about the many aspects of what I do in order that I don't give a false sense of the kind of income that can come from doing something like this. I would have to throw out all of the idealistic ways of being and become a horrendously stressed out individual that couldn't actually do all the things I want to do if I were to run this on a full time basis. would be one of those announcements that once again we see almost weekly. It is with a heavy heart, that I have to say I'm closing the doors and you know there's so many designers, Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: know, all the time because they're running themselves into the ground, trying to compete in a system that you can't compete on price, you just cannot compete on price. I make no excuse whatsoever for how much my cost, the cost is for, you know, purchasing a piece in my collections. I make no excuses for it whatsoever. That's how much it costs. Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: But as an educationist, I can then help you to repair something that you absolutely love. I can help you to alter something that you really, really think would look great on you. So it's like it's giving multiple levels of opportunities to actually see clothing and fashion in a different way. Eve: Mm, absolutely. Well it sounds like you've come into fashion at the right time in your life because you can actually live out your values without competing on price. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, absolutely. having teaching has, so when I, when I, after I finished my, my degree in business, I was very, very disillusioned with what business was in the nineties. And I wasn't prepared to, to alter the values that I'd grown up with and, and, and felt really in tune with in order that I could just sell stuff. So selling stuff has never been something I'm particularly interested in. I think there is enough stuff in the world. And so for me, I then went into teaching as a vocation and I live and breathe teaching. what fuels me just having the opportunity to share something that you know, to be able to teach somebody who wants. that skill and then in that process you're both continually learning something new and I just absolutely love that and so being both a designer and an artist because I came to the the art and the designing once I had my children Yeah, I have had a very different approach to it than if I was to have done this when I was 20. But if I was 20, I'd be teaching. Yeah. Eve: It all happens at the right time, I feel. It's hard to Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I think when it comes back to what you were saying about the awareness of it, if you're awake and aware of what is actually happening, then you can see that. often people are living in many, many really challenging circumstances, people with three different jobs just in order to put food on the table. So we have to be really mindful of the variety of ways that people are functioning on a day-to-day basis. And that's also a big part of why I'm never the type of person who is going to stand up and say to a mother of four on limited income, don't buy t-shirts from Kmart. To me, why are we going to create a situation where people are actually feeling bad about clothing their children? Do know what I mean? The system itself is where the problem is at. For Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: me, if I've got a basic t-shirt or something like that, I'll have it in my family for decades, right? And I'll be repairing it and I'll be doing stuff with it and then it'll be used as rags and I'll be continually using it. For me, it's about recognising that somebody at some stage of its creation has had their hands on it and Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: recognizing that all the way through there, there have been people that have been involved in that. And so I will value something that is, you know, a $10 top as much as I'll value something that's a $100 top because along that process, people's hands have been creating that, people's hands have been involved in the making of that. and bringing it so that I can put it on my body. So I think that that's much more important to me than having this demonising of, you know, don't shop here, don't shop there, you know, look after your kids. Like that's what's important, take care of yourself, look after your kids. Eve: Absolutely. and what changes do you think when women start dressing for themselves? Leuca Jane Ziemons: I think in my experience seeing people dressing for themselves is when they start to see themselves again. I think there's a really... when you're young there's a very false illusion that you you get to your 40s or you get to your 50s and you're like I know what I'm doing now. It's just nonsense. You basically are a particular age, mine is 25 and You are that age pretty much for the rest of your life. And this 25 year old is looking at you going, my God, like why did you just make that awful noise just because you tried to stand up? Like it's as bemused about the changes as you would see this person being bemused by them. And I think that what happens when women start dressing for themselves is what they're doing is they're actually honoring. the core of what is living inside them. They're honouring the one that used to go to raves at two o'clock in the morning and be delighted that everybody was on drugs because they could actually not drink, I wasn't a drinker, and so I could drink water and be absolutely wild whilst everybody else was off the face. But I enjoyed being that person. And so when you dress with that person in mind, which is what feels like the true self, that person is allowed to come out a little bit more, you know, each and Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: every time. And so when you get up in the morning and you put on something that feels more like that, then you are enacting your life in that way. Because people can check out from life really, really early, you know? I mean, I've seen Eve: Uh-huh. Leuca Jane Ziemons: people in their late fifties, really trying to talk about their last hurrah. I'm just like... You're like 57. I'm about to turn 55 next week. I think I've got about 47 different hurrahs that I'm still going to be having, you know? Eve: Good. Leuca Jane Ziemons: So I dress for the 25 year old who lives inside, but I dress Eve: Mm-hmm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: to feel great in the body that I am walking around on the world with, you know? Eve: Yeah, that's so cool. I love that. Leuca, what does living intentionally mean to you? Leuca Jane Ziemons: I mean for me intention, it's how I get up in the morning. So living intentionally is actually looking at the circumstances in which I am currently living and bringing the values that have been part of my life and part of my existence into the choices that I make. within that day with the grace of understanding that I'm not always going to get it right. So it's a whole way of approaching decision making, but there's a softness to it knowing that we can only be the intentions of what we know to be right at that point. And so I think that often there's this idea that, you know, I'm living with intention and I'm living in a way that feels right and all the rest of it. But then, you know, what happens in like a couple of years time and something dramatic changes the way that you thought about something? Does that mean that you weren't being intentional? It's like, no, well, you were being intentional within the framework of what I know to be right at the moment. So, yeah. Eve: Hm. Yeah, absolutely. It comes back to that phrase I think when you know better, do better. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yes, yeah, I really love that. mean, it can be quite harsh, can be quite blunt when it's said because you just kind of think, well, but I didn't know Eve: Mm. Leuca Jane Ziemons: that. the essence of it, think, is really beautiful. And I think that I don't feel that we are kind enough with each other as a society to recognise that we need to have really brave conversations in order to actually do better. So, Eve: Yeah. Leuca Jane Ziemons: yeah, I think there's a real balance there. Eve: I often say, this collective movement, is about taking your power back. But what does taking your power back mean to you? It's different for everyone, so I'm always interested to hear Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, I don't think I ever lost it. I don't ever feel... I've lived a really, really good life and I have been extremely well supported in my life. I've been with my husband for 30 years. I never gave away my power, you know? I lived intentionally as an independent young woman. I live intentionally in my marriage, being a wife, being a mother, being a maker, being an artist, yeah. My power is here. Eve: I love that. And if any if everyone listening today changed just one thing about how they approached clothing tomorrow, what would you hope it would be? Leuca Jane Ziemons: Dress for themselves 100 % dress for yourself Yeah It's not all that serious, right? It's just a piece of clothing So nobody else has the right to care And so therefore, yeah Dress for yourself so that you can keep twirling Eve: may there be more twirling. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah. Eve: And Leuca, where can people find your work? Leuca Jane Ziemons: So I'm pretty active on Instagram. So Mellalookarise is my Instagram and I also am creating my studio journal on my own page, which is at Leuca Jane Zemmons. And that is where I, that's where you'll find more of like my poetry and my real kind of the thought. processes that are going into the creative works that I'm making. And I currently have a website under my own name, Leuca Jane Zemons. you're so well and lovely. Eve: I look forward to seeing your designs at the Circular Fashion Festival. Leuca Jane Ziemons: Yeah, yeah, look out for it. So my collection is the Calliax Daughter. Eve: what inspired that collection? Tell us about the name where the name came from. Leuca Jane Ziemons: the Calliach story. So the Calliach is our origin story in Scotland where the myth is that the Calliach, the wild woman of the winter, would throw out the boulders from her apron. And that's what became all of our magnificent mountains and hills across Scotland. And because I've come from Scotland and carry Scotland within me, The concept of this whole unfolding collection is how that is then transferred to the daughter, you know, how do these stories and these legends and all the things that we carry with us as Scottish people, like how does that come through me and to my daughter using the Calliac as this strong, strong woman that she was. Eve: I can't wait to see it on the runway. Before we finish I'd love to leave you with one question. When did you last feel like most like yourself? Not the version shaped by expectations, deadlines, or everyone else's opinions, but the real you. Maybe that's something worth sitting with this week. If today's conversation has resonated with you, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or sharing the episode with someone who may need to hear it. Every share helps us reach more people and grow a community that's choosing to live with greater intention. Until next time, remember, take your power back, one conscious choice at a time. I'll see you in the next episode.