Australian Designer Fashion for Women

A label by Bri Cheeseman and Andrew Prince

View Secret Squirrel Clothing or visit the Official Site

The duo behind Australian designer label Secret Squirrel – Bri Cheeseman and Andrew Prince (image below) caught up with Australian Fashion Review for a few words about their fashion partnership.

Please introduce yourselves Bri and Andrew and tell us a bit about your background

Bri is Canberra born, and I am a Sydney boy.  Bri has had a life long love and interest in making clothes and dressing up and has an hilarious photo album full of extreme and sometimes ridiculous outfits she’s donned over the years.  On moving to Sydney studied jewellery and Object design at TAFE Design Centre in Enmore, but decided fashion was more up her alley and so Secret Squirrel began.  I am a musician and have a background in tourism and hospitality.  I am the son of an accountant, making me a natural as the business manager and accounts department at Secret Squirrel- what a team!

How did the Secret Squirrel label begin?

The Secret Squirrel story officially began under a canvas umbrella at Sydney’s Glebe Markets- we made a range of cute tops and t-shirts that were all sewn and printed here at our home.  It was LOTS of work and a hard slog at times, but was a great way to begin- we had direct contact with the girls buying our clothes and could really work out what people liked and didn’t like so much.  We now produce two seasonal collections a year and are stocked in about 30 boutiques across the country and beyond.

What do you hope to accomplish with your fashion label? What is the dream!?

Secret Squirrel is all about clothes that are special and gorgeous as well as being really accessible and easy to wear.  We design for girls who love clothes and fashion but aren’t necessarily interested in following the latest trends.  Instead, we make wear-anywhere pieces you can treasure for years.

We are working towards opening our very own Secret Squirrel store somewhere in Sydney in the future which is super exciting as well.

Who are your favourite fashion designers and what about them inspires you? What else inspires you?

We are inspired by myriad of designers from huge labels like Marc Jacobs, Chloe, and Burberry to independent and local designers doing their own thing, just like us.  It’s amazing and inspiring to see how different labels translate concepts and feelings into fashion and textiles.

We love sifting through the squillions of blogs out there in cyberspace and are always inspired by bloggers and what they post- we spend a LOT of time trawling the net for new, and already loved blogs.. People on the street are always inspiring to us as well- we get a real kick out of seeing how different girls express themselves through what they wear.

Music is definitely a big part of the design process for us, and we’ve been known to design whole collections around a particular band or album- our latest collection, ‘The White Album’ being a perfect example of this.

If you could pick someone famous that best represents your labels style, who would it be? Alternatively, what famous person/s would you want wearing your label?

We are always being told that our clothes are very ‘Alexa Chung’ which we take as a big compliment- she’s pretty sassy!  We’d love to see her in our clothes.  We also love Sarah Blasko, and have spotted her looking amazing in Secret Squirrel on occasion which is really exciting.

Complete the following sentence: Secret Squirrel clothing is unique because:

We make clothes that are simple and elegant without necessarily looking ‘simple and elegant’. We are young and modern, and a little innocent, but there is a splash of gorgeous and grown up about us, too.

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