Sharing a birthday with the legendary Yves Saint Laurent, 28 year old Petrova Hammond was always destined for a bright fashion future. Designing clothes since she could dress herself, Petrova made it to Rosemount Australian Fashion Week as a finalist on the debut season of Australian Project Runway. Post project runway, the infectious Petrova is unlikely to fade into the background. The designer not only received critical acclaim on the reality television show, but has also been successfully running her boutique, LADY, with business partner Skye since 2006. The bubbly Petrova, now busy working on her boutique’s namesake label, takes some time out to chat with us about life, love, and red satin flares.
"I guess the first thing everyone wants to know is what it was like being on Project Runway.
It was intense, a true emotional rollercoaster. I’ve never cried or laughed so much in my life! I absolutely loved everyone! I don’t think the producers expected us to all get on as well as we did. I still keep in touch with everyone, especially Leigh, Julie, Sophie, Mark & Brent," she says.
Do you think it helped your career? I haven’t heard of the success of any of the other contestants which I attribute to the fact that you’re just super talented and were always going to make a profile for yourself, show or no show!I think it has definitely helped my profile. I get many teenage girls coming into my shop to say hello and say they loved my final collection, which is so lovely to hear.
Do you get recognized a lot?At first I only got recognized in Spotlight and other fabric shops, but once I got into the final 3 and after the show I get recognized quite a lot! Especially when I am in my shop of course!
So what was the most important thing you learned from Project Runway?If you believe in yourself and work hard you might just be given a second chance, and that Australian designers are on par with the rest of the world!
Enough about Project Runway, you’re about much more than a reality TV show! What’s the story behind your boutique, LADY?I first opened my shop LADY with my business partner Skye in High St Armadale in 2006 and after a year of being in Armadale we decided to move to the city & found a fabulous little shop in Flinders Lane.
The shop that we found was painted all over with blackboard paint, every wall even over mirrors and the concrete floor was cracked. We spent two weeks renovating the entire store ourselves, painting, mortaring holes in the floor, sanding and drilling racks into the walls! We wanted the shop to feel like a surreal dolls house, so got a 3 metre staircase to nowhere constructed in the middle of the shop, spray painted lace stencils on the floor and our artist friend Eveline Tarunadjaja illustrated the walls.
I love having a shop because it means I can display my LADY collections how I like and I have the opportunity to talk to customers and find out what they want. It also gives me the opportunity to stock other like minded labels and I can play dress ups whenever I like!
Have you always lived in Melbourne?I was born in London, lived in New Zealand until I was six, then I moved to Sydney and grew up in and around Bondi. I finally moved to Melbourne to study a Bachelor Degree in Fashion at RMIT in 2000.
Would you say Melbourne is your favourite city in the world?I loved Hiroshima in Japan and the contrasts in Mexico, but I do love Melbourne the most of all!
Where do you see yourself in ten years' time?I honestly live each week as it comes, but hopefully I’ll be rich famous & happy.
So what are you immediately drawn to in a clothing store and what catches your eye most when you first walk in?I’m a very lucky shopper, often the first thing I am drawn to is in my size & the colour I want. I am mostly drawn to bright colour, prints & whimsical fabrics, I guess that’s why I love vintage shopping so much!
What is the key to successful vintage and shopping generally?When op-shopping or at the markets, I believe that you must buy something in the first 5 minutes to please the shopping gods and then you will always have a successful shopping day!
When shopping in boutiques I think it is best to go shopping by yourself and listen to your intuition and always buy something if you absolutely love it even if it doesn’t go with anything you own.
You always look so fabulous, do you ever just slouch around in tracksuit pants? I always wonder what Karl Lagerfeld wears on his days off too!I would never ever leave the house in track suit pants! But when I’m at home of course I lounge around in my ‘comfy clothes’ which is usually a combination of vintage pajamas, my boyfriends old soccer tracksuits and velvet Chinese slippers!
Sounds like you always do look fabulous after all! You must have a terrible fashion faux pas memory to entertain us with? Nope, I have no regrets! Everything I have ever worn felt right at the time.
Darn! So what’s your best advice for getting dressed in the morning?Wake up with a theme and play dress ups!
And what staple item/s should be in everyone’s wardrobe?Plenty of bright happy dresses, flat boots, a winter cape and lots of hats, scarves and sky-high heels!
What’s your favourite item of clothing?My dads satin flares that have red flames embroidered on the hem and have box pleats on the sides so when you walk it looks like flames are shooting up the sides of your legs. He designed and made them himself and was wearing them when he first met my mum at a Rolling Stones concert.
Amazing! If you could live in any other time period, based on fashion, which would it be? Oh I love so many periods in fashion, from Medieval times with their gorgeous velvets and handmade laces, to old Hollywood 1950’s glamour and fashion forward fun-loving 1960’s.
What inspires you the most and who would you say are your greatest influences?Inspiration is everywhere, a girl walking down the street that looks fabulous, my friends, music, art…. a twisted tree, anything really.
My greatest influences are the draping technique of Vionnet the artwork of Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha and my father who was also a fashion designer.
OK, we need something juicy… Tell us about your first kiss! It was at a school dance, whilst dancing to “The Time of my Life” from Dirty Dancing!
How very 80’s of you! What would be the soundtrack to your life?A Diplo mixtape that includes the Shangri-La’s, Santogold, Bananarama, Britney Spears, Kate Bush & the B52’s
And your favourite karaoke song?I never sing in public. All of my years at Johnny Young Talent Time School scarred me for life!
Finally, what three things can’t you live without?My fiancé & best friend Raphael, my sewing machine Fiona and my shop Lady
LADY stocks: Tristan Blair, Karla Spetic, Bim Kinesis, Sara Philips, Estrella, Emma Veal, Tryst, My Pet Square, Fine Cloth, Jane & Eleni, I Heard They Eat Cigarettes, Limedrop, Mr Julius, Marie Says Eat Cake, Alex & Alex Shoes, a selection of re-worked vintage pieces and many more!
Oh, and of course the pretty LADY Collection!
And arriving at the LADY boutique in Feburay/March 2009 just in time for Autumn/Winter are labels Karen Walker, Srestsis & Lucette
Lady, Shop 3/237 Flinders Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000 (03) 9650 6285