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Ana Steele talks about her Marionette Hobos collection
The challenges facing young designers are huge. In this interview Click talks to Ana Steele about her first major collection Marionette Hobos and setting up shop. What’s the inspiration behind the Marionette Hobos range? The Marionette Hobos concept is combination of my current obsession with homeless people and my friend Corey's dream. In the dream Corey saw a stage with two puppet looking models wearing my designs attached to marionette strings... looking up to me at the controls! So my sketches turned into puppet characters with influences from the street and the stage guiding the garment design... fluid fabrics mixed with hard buckles and straps holding it all together in a haphazard way... What’s behind the illustrative motif created by Hamon Ra that’s an integral part of your designs. Hamon and I have known each other for a few years now but until recently I didn’t even know of his artistic side. As soon as I saw them, his fine detailed drawings fascinated me. We would often hang out and draw together. It was this drawing that I used as the screen-print for the summer collection. Tell me about the fabrics you have selected for this range. The base fabric of my collection is silk, which has come up beautifully in printing. I have also introduced some cotton metals (shadow and hobo). The colour palette is mostly monotone with greys and flesh tones with a colour injection of bright pink featured in some prints...referencing the colours I see at dusk. What does the Marionette Hobos collection mean to you? For me the collection is the development of my sketches into actual characters; creating an environment for them in my imagination, and then morphing all this into wearable garments that real people can enjoy. I have actually ended up using them in a more developed way for my third collection 'junkyard' winter 08. Where is the collection being sold? The collection is available at the store I share with fellow designer Michael Pattison, PattisonSteele in Grey Lynn, Auckland. It’s also available at Mia Style in Tauranga, Robe in Hamilton or through my website www.anasteele.com. You clearly have fashion ‘in your blood’. Did you ever consider other careers and if so what were some of them and why did you leave those ideas behind. When I was little I wanted to be a vet and an archaeologist. But I have made clothes from a young age. My first sewing machine was a yellow plastic 'my little pony'. I made scrunchies and dolls clothes! I left art school for fashion school, had my first fashion show at age 19 and have been slowly working my way towards doing it properly ever since. What effects did your five years of working with Feline have on your approach? After leaving AUT fashion school, working at Feline showed me the reality of the industry on the scale of shop owner/retailer and producer; a lot of hard work and long hours. Having a shop is a business in itself, let alone the design and manufacture of actual garments. Running a small business is unending hard work, but it is your work and you create your own success! Tell me a bit more about your studio collaboration with Michael Pattison – what drew you together and what are the pros and cons? Michael and I met as finalists for a fashion competition which was televised in a single episode called 'Frockstars' (sigh!) which followed our journey with a new company to develop a collection to be produced by them and sold through their High Street store. We remained friends and decided to combine resources in October 2006 as we needed to expand our workspace. It’s such a hard industry, so it definitely makes it easier to present a unified front. What are your thoughts about the challenges and opportunities facing the NZ fashion industry today? New Zealand is great in the creative sense and there are also many talented people in the industry willing to pass on their knowledge and help support each other. While people love to buy/support NZ made products, it’s expensive to produce clothing here. It’s very hard to compete with the cheaper, overseas imports. Another challenge is getting retailers interested in your label. They all have strict budgets which often leave little room for the 'new guy'. What does the future hold for you and the Ana Steele brand? While still retaining our separate label identities, Michael and I are about to focus on PattisonSteele in a more substantial way with regards to sales and promotion in order to further our brand and ready it for the international market. We are both interested in getting into Australia and Japan. The step overseas is essential for growing our business. We are also looking into potential retail space in Auckland. 
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