New York, New York: The Canberra designer who launched her collection at NYFW
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As a pioneer of the Australian eco-fashion movement, Kelli Donovan’s journey has taken her from Canberra to the Manhattan catwalk.
Kelli Donovan has always come back to fashion. It’s in her blood. From sewing tiny dresses for her Barbie dolls with a Holly Hobbie sewing machine and learning the trade tricks from her grandmother (a Scottish tailor) to launching the Australian eco fashion label Pure Pod in 2006, no matter where life has led her, she’s felt most at home with a needle and thread in hand.
But Kelli never imagined that, in her 28-year career in the fashion industry, she would launch a collection at New York Fashion Week.
In fact, for the experienced sustainable and ethical designer, advocate, mentor, and consultant, there was a time when she wasn’t sure if fashion design was still in her future. After more than a decade of making clothing, Kelli made the heartbreaking decision to close Pure Pod and step away from the industry she loves.
“COVID was a massive blow for anyone who worked in the arts and creative industries, so I had to wind it [Pure Pod] down…I just didn’t have my heart in it and the retail sector had also changed a lot,” says Kelli.
“It all ground to a halt…it was sad and horrible and everything else, but it gave me some time to do nothing.”
Taking some time off from late 2020 to rediscover herself, while she was no longer selling clothes, Kelli continued to do the odd little design job, like making scrubs and face masks. But it was creating a replica of a Micheal Jackson jacket for a client and tapping back into her creative side that reminded Kelli of her passion for fashion and inspired her new brand, Keli Studio.
But first, she launched kellidonovan.com.au – a service that offers consulting, mentoring, public education, and workshops in the sustainable fashion space.
“I’ve always worked in the public education space…working in the weird space of sustainability, you always feel like you’re educating people. It’s just making it more of a broader platform,” she says.
“You always want to make clothing when you’re a designer and a creative. What was interesting was I always had makers making my clothing but making this Micheal Jackson jacket definitely helped because it put the skill back on me….it ignited that passion again.”
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Rediscovering her love for creating clothing herself from reclaimed trims, dead stock fabrics, op shop garments, and discarded landfill jeans and clothing, Kelli says she didn’t start to create a collection. However, as the designs continued to come to her and she continued to find inspiration in consumer waste, she could see one forming in her mind’s eye.
“I didn’t want to push anything quickly into any direction, I just wanted to see which way my life went after closing Pure Pod because it was heartbreaking,” says Kelli.
“I’m still seeing what happens, because I also want to go a lot more into my creative voice from an arts perspective, not just a fashion perspective which is why Keli Studio is so important.”
Inspired by the artwork of the Giant Manta Ray by James Lavercombe, as well as her research into ocean textile waste, Kelli created the Manta Ray collection as a reminder of the importance of recycling, upcycling, reusing, and redesigning.
Explaining that between 2015 and 2050, 22 million tonnes of microfibres are expected to enter our oceans and that the fashion industry has a huge history of polluting waterways and ocean ecosystems, she says that she wanted to show that beautiful and inspiring pieces can be remade into new things.
“There’s so much oversupply of clothing that things get discarded so quickly that they’re now polluting oceans, which is mind-blowing,” says Kelli.
“If I can make my pieces more art-based and re-use textiles that are already here, it all works together…it’s art, but clothing.”
Using donations from The Greenshed and Vinnies, surplus textiles and trims from other designers’ studios, and things she had salvaged and reclaimed from Pure Pod, everything in the collection is reclaimed, remade, removed, and reused – including all of the little manta ray images scattered across the designs.
And – after reaching out to a peer in the fashion industry – before she knew it, the Manta Ray collection was walking down the runway in New York with Block The Noise, an organisation dedicated to changing the world, one fashion event at a time.
Using the show to fundraise for a family displaced from the war in Palestine, Block The Noise showcased her collection alongside other international designers, just one mile from Times Square.
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Kelli says that launching her collection and Keli Studio in New York is an experience she’ll treasure forever.
“It’s mind-blowing considering two years ago I thought I would probably never do something again in fashion, because I didn’t know what it would look like,” she says.
“I’m always drawn back to fashion because that’s where my passion is. Going from the end of COVID where everything completely shut down to New York Fashion Week is pretty exciting.”
Yet to set up a website for Keli Studio, the Manta Ray collection will be available to purchase with ‘made to order’ options available.
Feeling re-energised and re-inspired, Kelli also has plans to attend Eco Fashion Week Australia, host a future fashion show in Canberra, run workshops, and start many more yet-to-be-announced projects.
Mostly, she’s excited that she’s found her creative voice again. And as her work travels the world, she’s using it for good.
For more information, visit kellidonovan.com.au
Feature image: Grand Central Station, Manhattan, New York. Credit: Mikhail Lipyanskiy.
