In 2011 Lover turns ten. So to build inspiration for their anniversary collection, and to spread the good word about their homegrown label, Nic Brian and Susien Chong have just toured the globe.

One stop was a swish party for Lula magazine's fifth birthday at Harvey Nichols in London. Lula also has a pop-up store there, featuring a Lover jumpsuit made especially for Lula. "When Leith Clark, the editor and founder of Lula Magazine emails you and says 'I’m having a Lula pop up shop at Harvey Nichols and I want Lover to make a special piece for it'. You say 'Yes please, where do we sign up!' To us the Lula girl and the Lover girl, hang in the same gang, they swap CDs and use each others fake ID," says Nic.

Although their trips overseas are mainly work, Nic and Susien love to travel. "The best parts about travel are plugging into a new city and people watching. Being exposed to things first hand, not seeing it on a blog or reading about it in a book. Even though there is an information overload taking place in our culture and you feel as though you’ve seen everything, you can never deny the satisfaction of viewing a Lucian Freud painting right in front of you. Or over hearing two New York skaters talk slang on the subway," he says.

Lover is a favourite label with bloggers, so what do they think about the way street style blogs help everyone to dress the same the world over? " On the surface it is odd how everyone seems to be a lot more uniform with the way that they dress, style reference points can now swap countries within minutes. It can become very paint by numbers.

But what it does, is it forces you to look closer at specific details, you realize that there are differences that are just born out of someones’ surroundings. Brooklyn boys may roll their sleeves or wear their bike chain a certain way. And the French girls have an elegant nonchalant way about them. Its hard for street style blogs to capture the essence of someone, their movement, their mannerisms, which is the true definition of style."

Turning ten is a big deal in any business, and to this pair it means maintaining an independent company that produces an Australian made product that's only sold in boutiques. "We did it on our own terms and we maintained relevance in a highly competitive local market," Nic adds.

Outside of the business skills you need to stay around for so long, a label that always seems to be on the money must need a whole lot of inspiration. "The history of fashion excites us. The lineage and steps people have taken to create brands and specific styles that carry on today is fascinating. We always find our own creative process enjoyable, in which we form a character and design the clothes she will wear and how that relates to our customers. The extent of some peoples’ knowledge of fashion these days, seems to start and stop at Style.com. But you need to understand the craft and its process, from sketch to shop floor otherwise you can keep making mistakes," Nic says.

 

Buy the Lover for Lula jumpsuit online