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Designer Wardrobe's Donielle Brooke Shares Some Business Acumen

Thursday 26 October 2017, 3:38PM

By Beckie Wright

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Recently, Designer Wardrobe’s founder, Donielle Brooke, caught up with the inspiring Kayla Jurlina about her startup Homage. Kayla related that Homage was her first project after leaving Trelise Cooper, as she felt it was time to come into her own. As Kayla tells it, “At my time of departure from Trelise, I was working to a busy schedule as Trelise’s right hand woman. Travelling the globe sourcing fabric and collaborating on the design of four of the fashion house’s labels; Trelise Cooper, Cooper, Curate and my own label COOP by Trelise Cooper.

“Involved across the business I helped with styling and look-book creative through to fashion show ideation and delivery. This year I decided I wanted a new challenge. My own challenge. Stepping away from the large-scale fashion industry, I was ready to explore new creative directions and ideas.”

Kayla went on to say that her three key learnings so far in business were coffee dates, time and confidence. “Coffee dates have been an eye opening conversation starter. In this industry there are a lot of events where connections are made but never followed through. So I started asking people who I admired and wanted to get to know better than a quick 5 minute talk at an event. This helped me to get my ideas out of my own head and start a conversation around turning my idea into reality.” Regarding time she is still making mistakes and with confidence, “If I believe it, others will too.”

Lastly, her advice for other women with an idea for a business is, “Share the idea.

Get it out of your head onto paper, go for coffee dates with people that are doing a similar thing or in the same field or even who you admire. Get a conversation started as this will help grow the idea into reality. From this you will start to know how to execute it and which people will help you to do so. It is an emotional roller coaster but you will never be happier than doing something you believe in.”

For information on Designer Wardrobe and selling bags online, buying clothes and designer jewellery please go to www.designerwardrobe.co.nz .