Designing a dream

Jul, 2007

A little Love from Lucy

EMMA Milikins lives to create and creates to live.

The Nobby Beach designer, 30, owns the accessories label Love from Lucy and has been turning heads in the competitive world of fashion since she opened a store at Burleigh Heads in November last year.

Chat with the convivial Ms Milikins for a few minutes and it's quickly apparent she's worked hard to attain her growing success.

"Some people think you can get too big too fast. I think they just don't trust themselves," she says.

"I love being overworked without a spare second in the day. When you fall into bed at the end of it, you know you deserve the place you have on Earth."

Ms Milikins has always loved art and design. As a student at Deakin University, in Victoria, she dabbled in wedding photography and sold her paintings. However, it wasn't until she left the city for laid-back Mooloolaba, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, that Milikins turned her hand to jewellery design. She migrated to the Gold Coast 12 months later and started selling her creations at beach markets.

"Some weeks would be fabulous, other weeks you would not even make the stall fee," she says.

So, she branched out and began selling jewellery at music festivals - and adopted the motto 'fake it 'til you make it'.

"This was true to me, as I was everything in the business. I was my own agent, secretary, bookkeeper and responsible for the slave labour in the manufacturing process," she says.

"I had no idea what I was doing. I quit my day job and focused on making the jewellery. It was the most exciting time of my life - and the scariest."

Scary maybe, but the time and energy Ms Milikins had invested in her art began to pay dividends.

"In 2003, my label was spotted somewhere and I got invited to exhibit at Mercedes Fashion Week," she says.

Ms Milikins, still a budding entrepreneur, couldn't afford the $6000 participation fee and had to decline the invitation. It happened again in 2004.

"I thought I had blown all of my chances. I never expected to get invited once, let alone twice," she says.

Fortunately, Australia's fashion elite recognised Ms Milikins' talent and in 2005, she received another invite. This time, she was able to cover the expenses. Her jewellery label, Soulskin, received a promising reception.

Ms Milikins signed up with a Melbourne-based agent. She made contacts in fashion media and negotiated for her line to be sold in stores around Australia - particularly in Western Australia.

The experience, she says, gave her the confidence to open her own store in Burleigh Heads, in November 2006.

"I can't stand falseness. I wanted a store that had substance, where people felt comfortable, so I created Love from Lucy, a little store that isn't flashy but has a big heart," she says.

More than just an outlet for Ms Milikins' jewellery, the store showcases labels by new designers and provides a space for rotating art exhibitions.

"I had worked in other stores where it was all about money, but I wanted to help people start their career. I realised the fashion scene, for all its fickleness, doesn't have much substance or soul and this helps me justify my involvement in it," she says.

"Growing up, I always thought I'd be doing something like aid or humanitarian work, because I'm such a softie."

Never one to rest on her laurels, Ms Milikins is expanding her range and dabbling with new designs. She launched her men's range, Coal & Clay, at this year's Rosemont Australian Fashion week, in May.

"This is a totally new area for me, but I enjoy the challenge," she says.

"Men are becoming much more aware of their fashion sense and accessories in my mind are just a natural progression.

"Surprisingly, we had a lot of interest from women, too. Something in my belly tells me this range is going to be an absolute success."

And there's more where that came from. Next on the to-do list is a children's range. It's name? Love from little Lucy, of course.

"Children's fashion is the fastest-growing industry in Australia at the moment and I want to get amongst it."

While she has a long road ahead, motivation isn't an issue for Ms Milikins.

"My dad passed away about four years ago and before he died, we always used to sit around and talk business," she says.

"He didn't understand fashion, but he loved what I was doing. Every time I think, 'oh this is too hard', I think about what he went through."

Her father would be proud of what she's achieved. The company has just signed a New Zealand agent and stores in Indonesia and Hong Kong are set to stock Love from Lucy.

"I realised fairly early in my life that I was not afraid of hard work if I had to do it to get what I wanted," says Ms Milikins.

"I'm a genetic workaholic and I want to conquer the world."

< Previous

Next >

Designing a dream

Other News

A little Love from Lucy

Other Recent Articles