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Fashion x Plants x Lust Survey: Kelly Elkin

Kelly Elkin is a mover and shaker. The co-founder of Australian based ethical clothing online retailer Well Made Clothes, Kelly is at the forefront of the charge to make the fashion industry more transparent and environmentally and socially responsible. She is also a plant lover, of course. Kelly is first up in our Fashion x Lust x Plants survey this month on TPH!

Can you please tell us a little about your life, with plants? I live in Sydney but I grew up in rural NSW. I have been surrounded by plants my whole life, this was accentuated by the fact that my parents were both Parks and Wildlife rangers.

I lived in the bush, went on holidays camping in the bush and was surrounded by plants constantly, much to my teen horror. I look back now and think how lucky I was. Now, living in Sydney’s industrial inner west I surround myself with plants and daydream about being back home!

Can you please tell us about your business? I am the co-founder of Well Made Clothes. We (Courtney Sanders, Carlie Ballard and I) started Well Made Clothes after a shared frustration with the lack of accessibility of information, or the ability to shop ethical fashion. Well Made Clothes allows you to shop by your values and read articles on the positive and negative impacts of fashion. Many people don’t know that fashion is the second largest polluter in the world! We try to educate but not overwhelm people, by encouraging everyone to pick what they value the most and shop accordingly.

What threads are you lusting over right now?  I am biased, but I think our current curation of knits on Well Made Clothes is pretty epic! From one of a kind hand-knitted jumpers made from New Zealand Mohair, Australian merino turtlenecks and organic cotton pullovers, I am definitely feeling the warm options right now!

What plants are you lusting over? I am loving my angel wing begonia at the moment- it is growing so quickly! Soon it will take over my lounge room! I am also loving our chilli plants – they just keep giving. As a result, we are having to make multiple batches of chilli and pickles!

What’s your earliest plant memory? Oh thats a tough one, I did have a cubby house in a wild pear tree at the bottom of the property I lived on, I spent so many afternoons in there hiding from my sister!

Green thumb or black thumb? Explain. I think I have a light green thumb. My parents were often in the garden and we always had a big veggie patch but I didn’t really take too much notice growing up. Now, although I try to grow a lot of things, I am not always successful!

Love and/or lust? Discuss. I feel like love builds up slowly where as lust takes over you instantly.

Favourite plant inspired fashion/fabric? I am very inspired by the new innovations with plant based fabrics such as Pinatex (leather made from pinapple), orange fibre (fabric made from orange peels) and other sustainable plant materials revolutionising the fashion industry.

Lovemaking outdoors. Yes/No? Explain. Hmmm not usually my thing, I suppose I am becoming less risque as I get older!

If you were a plant, what would you be? Oh that’s a hard one, I would probably be similar to a maidenhair fern, love warm weather and the rain, quite sensitive but surprisingly resilient!

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Well Made Clothes is revolutionising the way we see the fashion industry. Find out more by visiting their WEBSITE, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM.

Veja sneakers and Mimi Holvast jumpsuit from Well Made Clothes
Ritual Crew by Kowtow from Well Made Clothes