Meet Melanie Clements - Founder and Designer of Le Stripe

Australian designed.  Australian Made.  Small batch fashion.  Personal touch.

These are just a few of the reasons we LOVE this label, Le Stripe.  Mel is really, really amazing and we wanted to know more about how and why Le Stripe came to be. 

What's your inspiration behind Le Stripe?

My inspiration was a feeling that everything in the market was starting to look the same. I felt that each season the same trends were followed by many brands and the small market that is Australia was becoming swamped with cheap fabrics, styles and prints all looking the same. I wanted to make clothing in beautiful fabrics (which are becoming harder to find) in very unique prints and designs that would offer the customer something different. Most importantly, I wanted my customer to know the clothes were not mass produced but made in a very small sustainable way where often only 20-30 pieces of each style are made. My local makers are my trusted colleagues whom are treated with respect, good working conditions and wages and are partners in the success of my brand. 

What does a typical day look like at Le Stripe headquarters?

At the moment I'm incredibly busy (as mid season always is). A typical day right now is first spent answering emails, tending to social media before getting started on the 'hard stuff'. Fitting garments, adjusting patterns, driving out to my factories where I give them fabric and graded sets of patterns to start cutting and making my small runs of clothing. I check on styles in progress to see the quality looks excellent and that there are no problems. I also visit trim suppliers, fabric suppliers and stockists if I am delivering a new drop. It's never dull but it is demanding as well as rewarding too when I see the final product go to store. 

What's your favourite piece (or two) this season?

I am obsessed with the new 'golden' shade - it's really a new neutral colour that looks incredible with pops of colour in the form of accessories in red, silver, dusty blue or burgundy as well as working back with faded denim. It is a dramatic colour that works for evenings too and has that slight 70's nostalgic vibe that I'm always partial to. My favourite piece in this colour is the Trench Shirt and Trench Dress (sorry that's two I know!)

Tell us a little bit about your makers and how Le Stripe is different to other brands?

When I started my brand 8 years ago, I had recently left Country Road where I worked as a senior designer for 10 years or so. After working for big brands making large volumes of clothes off shore most of my career, I wanted to reconnect with the process of making clothes in a smaller and more personal way. Importantly, I wanted to make small amounts of clothing in a sustainable way where each season just enough is made. I love connecting with the local makers here in Melbourne, talking with them in person, problem solving and creating together. Not being on the end of emails but connecting with people face to face and supporting the very small local manufacturing industry here in Melbourne is important to me as a designer and a person.

What's on your travel wish list for 2025? 

Having being fortunate enough to go to Europe the last two years I am looking forward to visiting parts of Asia that I have never been to - high on my list is Vietnam.

What are you reading/listening to or watching right now? 

I am reading The Friday Afternoon Club (by Griffon Dunne) a true story about a very prominant New York family which is fascinating. I have just finished watching The Perfect Couple (very lightweight but fun) as well as Truman Capote's The Swans (which was fantastic). I love watching anything about fashion too and also recently watched the John Galliano documentary which is very worthwhile. 

The Spring Summer collection of Le Stripe is in store now in very limited quantities.