Veronica Rose [pictured below left] has been sewing and designing fashion since she was a teen, launching her eponymous label in Melbourne when she was just 17 years old.
“My approach to design comes from my background as a maker. I started a small scale ready-to-wear production for a local women’s and children’s brand when I was only 17, and just last year I apprenticed as a bespoke tailor. Manufacturing my own designs is very important to me and is what I find most enriching about the design process,” explains Veronica.
“I finished studying fashion last year [2023] and since then have been working on my experimental clothing project ‘Vesist Verum’ which I hope to launch in October alongside my collection showing at Revival Runway.”
THE BEGINNING
Veronica was gifted a sewing machine by her grandmother as a teenager after her gran noticed Veronica’s burgeoning interest in Melbourne’s vintage fashion scene.
“My grandma worked for her sister as a seamstress herself and regularly made clothes for her six children. I consider my grandma a tastemaker. Her penchant for knowing good clothing and always considering what you communicate with your style was an attitude that found its way to me.
“I fell in love with sewing because the process of bringing a concept into the real world through practical skill was invigorating. After it was clear my interest was beginning to extend past a hobby, my high school set me up with a Tafe course, I got a job working as a seamstress and then decided to study fashion at university. I’ve been working and planning my brand launch since graduating.”
Veronica says that she was lucky with her name – “a great choice by my mum” – and her penchant for the letter V continues.
“My upcoming project ‘Vesist Verum’ is latin for ‘True Clothing’. My design ethos is deeply intertwined with the exploration of what the truth of clothing and its powers of expression are to me. Also – I love words that start with V, it’s on brand.”
HER OWN PATH
While Veronica began her fashion career fairly typically – learning to sew and tertiary study – she says that she eventually realized her path should be different.
“As I was studying fashion I realized I really didn’t align with the expectations placed on young designers to move from exploring ambitious ideas, employing sustainability, learning to master practical dressmaking and craft skills only to move into an corporate ready-to-wear industry here in Australia where they may not have the freedom to draw on those experiences. I know it is not where my interest lies.
“An overarching theme in my life is I always feel ill suited to conventional spaces, people fear the weird – no matter how wonderful. And fortunately or unfortunately (depending on who you ask) I have no interest in pretending to be something I’m not.
“I wanted to create my own space to share my clothing with the world, where I could go at my own pace and welcome in anyone who is of the same heart generously.
“Everyone should create their art for themselves, because it brings them joy, because they have something personal to say, that’s what my brand will be.
INSPIRED BY …
“My main inspirations are Eiko Ishioka, Alexander McQueen, Madeleine Vionnet, Sarah Burton and the brand Mirror Palais,” says Veronica, citing some of the most exciting 20th century fashion designers.
“My upcoming project is ‘Vesist Verum’ which is Latin for ‘true clothing’ – it is about what fashion means to me – art that adorns the wearer with beauty and is cherished by them – rather than a product that is consumed and discarded. ‘True clothing’ is a garment that connects us to our identity and allows us to express the internal, which is why it is so important to me to make the clothing myself.
“The project has a very strong focus on sustainability and ethicality, revisiting how we thought about clothing before the prevalence of modern industrialism and fast fashion, as a way to encourage people to redefine the truth of their relationship to their clothing.
“The people who made our clothes used to be members of our communities, we used to gawk at the fabric collecting on the cutting room floor, there used to be no such thing as ‘waste’. ‘Vesist Verum’ is about relearning those notions.
For Veronica, her brand’s aesthetic is “avant garde, romantic, historically inspired and currently informed”. “It’s clothing for people who can find romance in any moment.”
A SUSTAINABLE AND ETHICAL FUTURE
As with most current fashion designers, Veronica believes that creating a sustainable and ethical brand is at the core of any designer’s work.
“During my studies I developed methods for zero waste bias cutting and draping, the reclaiming of post-consumer waste textiles into the design process, ethical sourcing and non-harmful fabric treatments for printing and dyeing,” she explains, “all of which I employ in the collection I’ll be presenting for Revival Runway.”
“Minimizing environmental harm is very important to me, as is a high level of manufacturing quality. I wanted to explore what sustainable couture would look like, as it is generally associated with opulence and a high consumption of resources. Utilizing a high level of hand techniques and ‘arduous’ practices is important to me as they are not replicable techniques within mass production.”
As for the future of her brand, Veronica wants to build a community: “[I want] to build a community of like minded people to collaborate with.
“I’d love to make custom pieces for clients and provide designs on a made to order basis. As a creator I am inclusive of people of all identities and backgrounds, and within my collections I offer adjustable sizing options for gender inclusive fitting, [and] I plan to offer my already manufactured pieces for loan.
“The dream for any maker is always to have their own atelier where they can create their pieces’ full time.”
To discover more of Veronica’s wide variety of creative work, go to https://www.veronicarose.com.au/, and follow her at @veronicareyno.
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