July 6, 2026 • 45 mins
Genevieve Smart has spent three decades shaping the way Australians dress. She started her career designing for icons like Zimmermann and Lisa Ho, before co-creating her own label, Ginger & Smart, which grew into one of the country’s best-loved fashion houses.
In this episode of The Edit, Genevieve joins Home Beautiful Editor-in-Chief Elle Lovelock to talk about the new, collaborative chapter of her career, from designing airline uniforms to a hospitality capsule with Cargo Crew. She also spills on her latest project, a wearable collaboration with Waverley Mills, the well-known, quintessentially Australian interiors brand.
Plus, Genevieve opens up about the light-filled beach house she calls home in Avalon, why incense and greenery matter more to her than fresh flowers, the scent that connects her to her late mother, and why she thinks fashion could learn a thing or two from interiors when it comes to provenance.
This episode covers:
- Genevieve Smart's career from Zimmermann to Ginger & Smart
- An idyllic childhood in a Tudor cottage in Surrey, England
- A tour of her light-filled beach house in Avalon
- Designing Jetstar's new cabin crew uniforms
- A hospitality capsule collection with Cargo Crew
- Her wearable collaboration with 152-year-old wool mill Waverley Mills
- Why fashion could learn from interiors when it comes to provenance
- The scent that connects her to her late mother
- What makes a home beautiful, and the secret to being a great host
Photo Credits: @genevievesmart & Waverley Mills
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Credits:
Host: Elle Lovelock
Guest: Genevieve Smart
Edited by: Leah Porges
Head of Vodcasting: Rachel Fountain
The Edit is a production of Home Beautiful and Are Media.
https://www.homebeautiful.com.au/home-beautiful-the-edit-podcast/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do your kids sneak your call?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Oh no, I mean my daughter does pilates with me
every morning, so that's good. I'm not embarrassing, although she
said I make too many noises in pilates, Like I
get a little, I get a yeah, I get feedback.
I feel like interiors is always you know, you sort
of know the provenance of the marble or the wood
as they talk about important Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Based on it. Yeah, people want to know.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
They want to know where that wood is from. They
want to know the glass or the task and fulear.
It's part of it. Fashion could learn a lot from
interiors in that sense, like where's the cushion you're from?
Where's the silk from? You know, it should be part
of the story of the garment.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I'm El Lovelock, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today, I'm reconnecting with
someone who has shaped the way I see fashion. Genevieve
Smart built her career designing for icons like Zimmerman and
Lisa Hoe, as well as her own label, Ginger and Smart.
(01:04):
Now her focus has shifted to collaborations that span industries
from travel to hospitality and a beautiful partnership that brings
fashion to a quintessentially Australian interiors brand. Genevieve and I
get into how fashion influences interiors but not necessarily in
the way you might think, and how she relies on
(01:25):
instinct to lead decisions in design, work and relationships. Genevieve's smart.
Welcome to the edit. It's so lovely having you here.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thank you, Ell. It's great to be here in this
really homely space, and thank you. I've never done a
vodcast before, so this is a new experience.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
How exciting. Well, I hope it's a good one to
check at the end. We were chatting before about how
our paths have crossed in the past. So when I
worked in the shop that Lisa Hoe, you were the
creative director.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Design director sign that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Back then, I was wearing your fashions and admiring how
you would put everything together. And then more recently, actually
this morning, for listeners who aren't watching, I'm wearing a
navy blazer and this is not the navy blazer I
wanted to wear. I wanted to wear one of my favorites,
which is a vintage ginger and smart piece, but the
(02:27):
collars and the elbows are so fraid. I thought I
could take this out one more time, but then I
went to put it on and saw that it had
dried yogurt spilled all over the lining, courtesy.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Of my five year old Signs of Life.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Definitely can't wear that, but I just think it's so lovely,
isn't You can meet someone and have had a history
that you're not really aware of.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I think that studies sometimes a wonderful thing about fashion
and design as well. There's all these sort of roads
that kind of weave together, which is so lovely.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Absolutely, How did you start in fashion?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Gosh? Well, I studied at the Fashion Design Studio, which
is the you know, the fashion school that wherever one
goes to. And I was interning actually for Zimmerman. So
it was Nicki, Simone and I just the three of
us in their little South Dowling Street studio, and so
Nicky and I would be upstairs, you know, pattern making,
(03:25):
smoking Alpine Ciggy's, and like, you know, just still set
three of us. I was still and then you know,
they offered me a job when I finished, so I
sort of went straight from design school to working for
them for three three four years maybe, Yeah, so that was.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I've been lucky to have some pretty great female mentors
in my life. And they were incredible, you know, as sisters,
and you know, they were still at the markets and
up until I think it was their first show for
fashion week, at the first fashion Week. So I was
very fortunate to work with them for that time. Yeah,
and then I went to work. I went overseas and
(04:03):
worked a bit over there. I lived in New York
and then came back and worked for Lisa Hoe for
six or seven years, where I would have met you.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yes, Yeah, it was such a good time.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
It's a good time in fashion, wasn't it. She had
a brilliant business. And again she was a great mentor
for me and took a chance on me. I was
so young, and so I'm really grateful to those women
who have helped show me the path of the fashion
industry at that time.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So you studied fashion in Sydney, but you didn't grow
up here or you weren't always.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
No, When I was born in Sydney and then my parents,
my sister and I had to live in the UK,
so we lived there I lived there till I was
I think six or seven, and we lived in Cranleigh,
which is in Surrey, So I guess I grew up
there in those formative years of six months old to
like six, so you know, that's where it was my
(04:59):
first I guess experience of nature and smells and all
the things that influenced probably my work, I'm not sure,
but so so I had a really what in my
mind was pretty idellic sort of childhood.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
There a real Beatrix Potter, you know, that's what the
visions to me. Was it like that?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, I certainly had a lot of Beatrix Potter, you know,
plates and crops and all the other things around the home.
My mum loved that, but yeah, it was we we
lived in very old We lived in a really old
sort of Tudor cottage which was at the bottom of
a hill where there was a colonel that lived in
the big manor house in a wheelchair I think his back.
My mom and dad used to take me up there
(05:38):
on the weekends to see him. But yeah, my dad
was he still is like six foot two or three.
So it was such a small ceiling in those Tudor cottages.
He literally had to bend his head to walk around
the house, and it was, you know, justus black and white,
you know, Tudor cottage with a little pig farm and
apple trees. My dad was a book publisher and my
mom was a book editor, so we didn't really have
(06:00):
a TV just because we had a lot of books
and dad would be tapping on his typewriter and going
into London for work, and so yeah, I guess it
was idealic in that we didn't have screens or tellvision
or any of that, so we kind of got to
create our own fun. But I think that's also why
we live where we do in Avalon, because there's a
feeling of a kind of village in a community there too,
(06:22):
and nature is really important.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So tell us about where you live. If if I
were to come over on the weekend and I come
to your front door, what does it look like? What's
the first thing I would see as you open the.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Door we walk through, you know, like we've got big
hedge out the front, so it's like an archway to
walk through it, like a hedge, so you sort of
walk into a space.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Hedge, which I have said on this podcast before, love
a hedge.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, our hedge has become a huge but we sort
of covered out this arch you walk through to get to,
you know, up the stairs to the door. So I
think when you walk in the front door or the
first thing you really see is the date palm of
our neighbors sort of in the distance, because our house
is sort of slightly elevated, so when you're walking you
just see open skies, a lot of like the tops
(07:12):
of sort of green trees. But right across from the
front door you see this date palm of the distance,
so it sort of frames the house. So I think
in the times it is there's built in the fifties.
It was one you know, and so it's one of
those beach houses, but it's been renovated a few times
since then. Yeah, you see a lot of green and sky.
(07:32):
If you come in in the day, that's what you see.
So I go straight to that. I guess if you
come in the evening, because we've got those partitions that
separate areas, you sort of might see a glimpse of
the lights in the lounge room or like a candle,
so you kind of can peek into. But it's quite
open plan. You literally open straight into the housepit. It's
very open. I think the last architects before we moved in,
(07:54):
they were sort of sustainable architects, so it's all kind
of very open. It's got there's no heating or anything
like that's got like we loovers everywhere, and it's all
on sort of solar and water tanks. So it's very
much about light in space. I guess when you walk in,
you see nature and light is the first thing. Probably.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
How do you feel when you walk in?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I always feel very calm, and I think again, it's
just that open space you walk in and I feel
happy to come home because it just it feels. Yeah,
it just has a lightness and a calm to it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And so it's all quite open. Is that intention? Is
that why you bought the place? Do you like to
live as a family all together or do I mean how.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well the kids are downstairs? I mean, which is actually great.
You walk in and then our bedroom is off to
the left overlooking this front carden, and then there's a
back deck that we live on it, and there's dining
room and all of that in the kitchen, and then
you go down the stairs and there's a rumpus room.
Better perfect, which is great because you know they're teenagers
(09:03):
now and so they need their own space there, and
they've got friends over, so we don't literally can't hear them,
even though it's just a set of stairs. When they
have all their friends over, it's just like kids.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
What does your home sound like? Ah?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I think in summer it sounds a lot like soicadas
and birds. And because we it's quite inside outside, so
we often have the back doors open where either lake
we've got sort of couches on the on the deck
and inside, so you're sort of living in both spaces.
So definitely sounds of nature. At nighttime you can hear
the waves crashing too, so beautiful. But mostly there's a
(09:41):
lot of music in our house.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
What do you play?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, it's funny my husband. You know how you get
the Spotify think and it tells you how old you are.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, I haven't done it. I can't bear to do
it because I'd be one hundred.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Well I'm seventy two and I was horrified. And my
husband's twenty three or something. On his as he sees himself,
he's a bit of a DJ, so he's always like
mixing tunes, so often you hear him playing whenever he's
playing that sort of house music, which is fun because
we're not dying around. But I'm seventy two, and I
think that's because I listened to Nina Simone a lot,
(10:16):
like I get in a like I'll play Baltimore over
and over again, and I think it's I think she's
taken me down. Nina's maybe seventy two because I listened
to her a lot, but more embracing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But yeah, but yeah, what does your home smell like?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It smells a lot actually incense, and we have candles
as well, but I feel like every time I travel
or we travel, we bring back incense and soeh, you know,
my daughter always says, oh, my friends always say the
house smells of incense, and I can't I love. I
think I love that sort of smoky, atmospheric gives and
I have them around the house in different pop plants,
sort of burning, and I.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Think it really adds to that memory. So when people
come over, like what you've just said saying the house
smells like incense, and to have a scent of your
home that people connect, I think it's beautiful. I remember
at Lisa Ho in the shops they always smelt like
the I really don't want to mess up the pronunciation,
(11:15):
but ajan provocateur, that's perfume because we sold it in
the little pink bottles.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh my god, I remember buying that for her. We
were in New York and we did a you know,
a trip and amber. Yeah. Beautiful, the pink bottle with
a black tassel.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yes, very provocative, and so I will always associate that
scent with Lisa ho on my time in those gorgeous shops.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I can smell it right now.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Do you have the same approach to fashion as you
do in teias or is it completely different?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It's interesting. I think it's got similarities in that you know,
you're expressing yourself in some way and it's very it's
layered and things collected over time. I feel the same
with my wardrobe. If you know you've got a good
she loaf you've had for a long time or whatever
it is, like, I think it's time layers a home
as it does your wardrobe, so you know, and styling.
(12:10):
I think the similarities. You know that with interiors, if
you've got like a red book that sort of can
often frame the room as a red sweater can around
your waist. I think there's a styling element, I think materiality,
but I think they do quite different things. I feel
like fashion is how you especial yourself in the world
that day, and your home is where you come to
sort of recover from being in the world in a way.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, I just think they're doing different things. As a person,
they do different things.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Have your kids picked up on this? Are they interested
in a sense of their own style?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
My daughter wants to be an interior designer or anterior architect,
so that's interesting. Yeah, she's always as I did as
a kid. I was always redoing my owned spaces all
the time, and I still will spend hours, Like I
think it's a bit of what if I'm procrastinating, I'll
just go and restyle a little part of my home
(13:09):
or my ages.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I go down a rabbit productive.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I feel like it is. Creativity takes so many forms.
And my daughter does the same thing. She's always re
working her space or the space downstairs. And now you know,
I mean with no pushing from me at all, but
she's just that's what she wants to do, which is
really nice. Yeah, my son has followed more, he wants
to be he wants to be an animated an animated
in animated film or that space, which is what my
(13:33):
husband does.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So you both have really cool jobs. Do your kids
think your call?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Oh no, no, I mean my daughter does pilarates with
me every morning, so that's good. I'm not embarrassing, although
she said I make too many noises in pilarates, like
I get a little I get it. Yeah, I get feedback.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Well, it's nothing like a child to bring you back down.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
She's going to be Emparison. One of her friends said,
why don't you meet her in Paris. I was like, no,
it's it's Poppy Strip. You know, she needs to just
have her time there. And you know what's their mom
coming to Paris? And Poppy was like, you're not a mom,
You're a mamma Sita. I was like, oh is that that?
That's a good thing. So yes, I am happy to
be a mama Sita. That sounds cool.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
We're going to Paris after the break. Genevieve touches on
her design ethos. It's not just about what it looks like,
it's about how it makes you feel. I want to
change things up a gear now because I want to
find out more about what you've done that is perhaps
(14:39):
fashion adjacent, because you're not just a fashion designer. You
have worked on products and projects that I'm not just
creating your own fashion line or a fashion line for
a brand. So what else have you worked on? Are
you working on?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Well, I mean, I'm in a really interesting chapter. I
think of my career right now since sort of departing
Ginger and Smart a few years ago, now I've learnt
the creativity is more than just fashion for me. And
I think being inside fashion for what was you know,
twenty years of Ginger and Smart and then you know
(15:22):
ten years with other brands. You're in the system, You're
in fashion, You're just in the world all the time.
And I think, and I'd say this about any industry,
and the same with interiors, like sometimes standing on the
edge of an industry looking back, you have a different perspective.
And I think my perspective on fashion, which I've been
my whole life, and I'm still working in fashion as well,
(15:43):
but I think even just understanding what fashion means to
people and what it is actually doing, like it's really
think it means to people? Well, I think it's about
connection with yourself. I think it's very sensory, just like
your home is. I think people don't fall in love
with a jacket. They fall in love with how it
(16:04):
makes them feel. It's very much or even a color,
like do they really love the color? Does it remind
them of something? Does it make them feel something that's
a good memory? Like, I think it's very it's a
very personal. The fashion is very personal. I mean I
the thirty years have been dressing people and things that
they wear out to present themselves that day in whatever
(16:24):
they're doing, and that's on their body in a way.
So it's very personal, and you know when you're in it,
you're just sort of doing it. But I think I'm
realizing now and because now I'm doing other creative projects
and exploring other things, like you know, I did airlines
and I'm doing things or hotels and restaurants and.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Tell us a bit about that for people who don't know,
have you done for airlines? I find it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well, I did the the new uniform for jet Star
which launched last year. I think, so it's incredible. Yeah,
it was such an experienios even understanding how the pilots
want to feel and at the end of the day,
the pilots want to feel like they're on a Gucci
runway as they're walk getting off the plane. They want
to feel like everybody else wants to feel. They want
to feel slick and together and you know, but unfortunately
(17:13):
they had to drive a plane for eight hours before that,
so there's all the things you like where they have
to reach to. You know. See, I don't know any
of the terminology, but you know the things.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I completely understand what you're saying. If you're sitting that long,
you want to make sure that you still you look
good when you stand up and walk off the plane.
But you're right. You can be comfortable and reach without restriction.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And you feel and you feel the best you can.
And obviously, you know, the cab and crew the same.
They want to feel great, they want to feel cool.
And I really enjoyed taking what I've learned in fashion
and applying it to things beyond just the fashion bubble
they lived in. Yeah, this is people who really have
to do very different jobs and it's all the same.
It's just it's fit, it's proportion, it's color, it's fabrication,
(17:56):
it's longevity. It's all the same things, it's just a
different well and that's been really exciting. Yeah, and I've
been working on a capsual collection for boutique hotels and restaurants,
which and does that look like.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
A capsual collection for hotels and restaurants?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Well, it came about because a friend of mine was
opening a restaurant in Bondi and said, can you help me?
I can't find anything from for the front of house
team to look good. And I was like, yeah, you know,
I'll have a look and send you some. And I
just couldn't find anything. But I've been working with Cargo Crew,
who's a company in Melbourne who make things for restaurants
and hotel like aprons, and they do They're really sort
(18:33):
of big in the work with group. And I know
Felicity and I rang and said, I just you know
a friend I can't find She just rang me the
next day and said, why don't we do this? She said,
why don't we do a fashion led like capsule that
we can take to really beautiful hotels and restaurants and
wellness spars around the world. And so we did, and
(18:54):
so it's very fashion led.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's genius. It is so clever because they do have
to wear a look that represents who they're working for,
and particularly in hospitality, I think part of being hospital
is presenting well.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well, yeah, it's your brand language in a human but
when someone reads you at the front desk of a hotel,
that is the first expression of the brand exactly, and
they have to be wearing something that you go, oh,
I like that jacket or rush, what's that fabric? So
we've done like seasucker and all these kind of full fabrics,
which I've always loved. And also it's men's doing men's
as well, which I love so and I love interiors,
(19:32):
so you know, I got to sort of jump into
hotel interiors and restaurants and understand that what they wear
is part of the choreography of a restaurant. It's the music,
it's the lightings, it's the scent, and in uniforms is
part of that choreography. It's just a part of how
the brand is expressed, definitely, which is really what I've
(19:53):
been doing for thirty years. But now it's I don't know,
it's really great to be, you know, taking what I
do and putting in different parts of the world.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
It's quite exciting because I think so many of us,
regardless what industry we're in, we do get to a
point where you can master your craft and think well
what next? Yeah, well and how can I use this
or do this in a different way. It's nice to
be challenged. Is there a space in a hotel or
(20:22):
a restaurant that you thought this is really me?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Actually the Khalil up in Brisbane. Yeah, it's so beautiful
and they have picked up on the uniform collections, so
that was a really nice I was like, oh, because
I also love your hotel so much, so that was
that was really lovely. And I love Gimblet in Melbourne
as a you know, just as a restaurant. I think everything,
the coasters, the music, the dances of it all.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
So, Genevieve, I really want to know a bit more
about your perspective on moving through a creative industry or
industry because you have had parts of your career where
you have worked somewhere for ten years. You have had
parts where you have had your own brand, you collaborate
(21:13):
with brands. How have you navigated moving through as a creative.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I think curiosity is really important and for me that
satisfies my I'm a curious person. So going from working
with a big sort of like a cultural institution on wardrobing,
I get to understand what happens there and in that
space and how humans want to feel when they're there.
And then with the airlines all with I think collaboration,
(21:43):
to me, I love because it just it's a different
part of my brain that's working. So for me, I
love working with other creative teams and understanding that business
and the people within that team. It comes a lot,
it's a lot to do with relationships. So just I
think that idea of I like connecting with other humans,
I like working with people. I love understanding other people's
(22:04):
businesses or brands. And then it's the same like I
still take what I do and I know and I love,
which is fashion and design and thirty years of understanding,
you know, proportion, which is across all of them, everybody.
You know, if it's an airline uniform or whatever it is,
it's often about proportion that people don't even realize. So
I think, because that's also hardwired, as I'm still learning
(22:25):
all the time that my natural curiosity about other industries
and people has been really important to navigate my way
through and I'm just finding this new sort of more
free stage of my career. I can really collaborate with
other people and understand. It's really satisfying, and I think, yeah,
so that's helped me. I just have to stay curious. Yeah,
(22:47):
I like learning still, and I like stepping into any
team and understanding and then you know. But it's also
important for me to have a constant as well, which
I'm working on a project as well, which is my own,
which is nice as well. So it's really lovely to
wake up in the morning and there's lots of things
going on. It's not always the same thing and that
I'm loving, like what am I going to work which? Which?
(23:08):
What am I going to work on today? And they
all sort of tie together. But I'm also really I'm
lucky enough to really pick and choose and work with
people that I can you know, if I don't feel that,
I don't know. I really need to feel the connection
with the personal the team is as a person and
know that it's going to feel easy. Not easy. Everything's challenging,
but just needs to have that ease and flow and
(23:28):
I can always feel that early on. So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It's so refreshing to hear the way you described collaborating
because these days it's so there's so much focus on
collaborating between brands and my brand will help your brand
and will build a superbrand. But really you're bringing it
back to this is about people. These are the people
(23:53):
I want to work with, the people who I can
create with to make product to help even more people.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It's a really.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Lovely approach that I think we forget so often that
it's not just about a brand. It's about the fulfillment
you get with working with a particular team or creating
a garment that you know will make someone feel amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, materiality. I mean, someone I've been working with was
really interested in working with future technology with fabrication, which
I'm so into. So I loved knowing that we walk
down this path together where we're working with fabrics that
are just being they're really just being developed now from
a secularity perspective and performance and how people are going
(24:44):
to feel so I can satisfy all of that. I'm
still so interested in all of that, and so that
feels good. But also knowing that that partner was because
I know they're interested in that they're sort of we've
got similar values. I suppose. I think that comes back
to that too, like they're interested in sustained ability or
circularity or longevity. Well, we have this on the table
has already values that we have, so you know, it's
(25:06):
just it's meant to be. When you hear those hear
those words.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Do you have a uniform of your own or do
you change what you wear all the time?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Interesting, I think I think I do. I think as
I didn't think I did. I think just from having
a brand for so long, you move with every season,
you're doing something else. And I think that's been the
other thing about stepping away from seasonal collections and shopping
my own wardrobe and the things I hold on to
(25:34):
and the things I you know, give away, pass on
or they look at my wardrobe. Now. I have a
lot of jackets, and I always did love jackets, even
you know, as a teenager. So a lot of coats
for winter. I really love Kashmir. So I sort of
have ridiculous amounts of cashmere and crazy amounts of leather
as well. I'm like, how, oh, I got seventeen pairs
of leather pants. That's ridiculous how embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
What is your wardrobe storage? Like, she don't mention it,
that is, do you have a system or is it
just craming as much as you can.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I've had to have a system, which you know, just well,
I swap it out every season. So I'll bring my
winter things out and I'll be like surprised to see
it all again. Yeah, I have to not see it
for six months for it to be you know. Yeah,
I have my holiday sort of storage, and I have
to because otherwise, you know, it all sits down and
(26:24):
you come come somem you think you need something new.
So I feel like I bring it. I really just
I hold on to the beautiful fabrications, you know, the silks,
and my mum, our mum collected silk blousers. She just
wherever she went, you know, she'd buy secondhand always, so
you know, everything from like Rodney Clark, who was an
eighties Australian designer. I was friends with Sophie growing up,
(26:48):
and it's one of the reasons I think I went
into fashion, was just being in that world. But yeah,
ought to you know, an old Sarty silk tafford a shirt.
She just had so many, all the waist silk shirts.
So she collected silk and cashmere and beautiful coats, and
I think I remember her should be like, feel this,
this is wool, this is silk. We don't where you know,
(27:10):
like really understanding materiality is. And I think that's another
difference with interiors. I feel like interiors is always you know,
you sort of know the provenance of the marble or
the wood.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
They talk about importance it placed on it. Yeah, people
want to know.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You want to know where that wood is from. They
want to know the glass or the task from fulier.
It's part of it. But with fashion it doesn't seem
I think they could. Fashion could learn a lot from
interiors in that sense, like where's the Kashmir from, where's
the silk from? You know, it should be part of
the story of the garment.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I think so too. And there are some garments that
you have created for Waverley Mills. Speaking of provenance, I
only learned recently that they really are everything in Australia,
which is amazing and based in Tasmania, and occasionally they
will send some things to the mainland to do, but
(28:06):
that's as far as it goes. And I think that's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Well, it's airloone pieces, you know, one hundred and fifty
two years. It's just a really long time to survive
and thrive. Really, I mean working with them was so
humbling and to it was the perfectly you know, stepping
back into fashion and materiality and textures again. I think
(28:30):
just seeing the process so that the sheep are within
fifteen kilometer radius generally, so they cut the sheet, the
wool comes in, and these bales of wool and then
you go. All the processes are under the same roof,
and these really old machinery and some are super new
as well, but just every process, the combing and the spinning,
and there's someone who just dies all the colors in
(28:51):
little glass pots that just so hands on. It's all
dried in the sun. It's just beautiful, and the quality
is just I don't know, I feel like you can
always feel to mania in the you can feel that
provenance deeply. It was so humbling to step into that space.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Doesn't even have a loom that they still use from
the fifties.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Talking of good design, I mean a design it even
looks cool as well. That machine like it looks like
a space ship, like the buttons are all cool. It's
just yeah, it's a real lesson. It was a real
back to this is what craft and design is really about.
And because they're more known for interiors and rugs, they
approached me because they wanted to do a line of
wearables because.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Of what did you design for them for our listeners?
I know obviously coveting, but what did what did you design?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, it was just a capsule of three pieces really,
so it's a scarf and a like a like a wrap,
and then like a cape. So it was inspired by
the idea of energy. So the colors. The good thing
about working with them was they were they were happy,
and they were excited to work on new ways of
doing things as well. So rather than wearing a block
(29:59):
colored skuf, it was about, for example, the red scarf
goes I think the sixteen shades of red, so it
looks like the lights falling on the scarf. But this
amazing color technician just we discussed all the colors. I
would send swatches down, dyed all the different colors, and
then they've they've woven it together so it just looks
like the lights like sort of brushed across it like
(30:21):
a painting, So that was incredible. So that was a scarf.
And then there's like a shorter rap which is super
fringy and fun. It's got like fringing down the vertical
side rather than the end, so when you put it on,
it just feels quite textual and glamorous.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Oh that's gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And then there's a cape, which I don't know. I
feel it feels like a superwoman cape. You can sort
of belt it or like I've wanted to art galleries
I've wanted after pilates. It's just like a piece. I
wear it at home to work. Sometimes it's like a
big cape. But they're all unisex as well, so that's okay.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
It's like a hug. Yes, yes, that's how I feel
about a cape.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Oh my gosh, is a she hug? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
When you are designing, do you design for yourself what
you would want to wear or are you designing.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
For other people?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And if it is other people, do you have a
customer in mind or someone aware in mind?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
That is so interesting. I feel like I design more
for how I want to feel and how I want
to look, because I think that comes first, and also
how I think maybe other people want to want to feel,
So I think as a designer, I would I went
(31:40):
through what I want to wear, and I think that's
quite limiting, just because what you want to wear its
body shapes. What I was doing is the job I had.
It's very kind of siloed. But I think when it
comes to how people want to feel is what I
lead with now a lot more like materiality, Like for Kashmir,
how I want it to feel on my skin is
I think most people want to feel held and beautiful,
(32:02):
and if somebody wants to feel scratchy and polyester, they
can have that. But for me, I feel like most
people want to feel especially on it's against your skin. Yeah,
So I think I'm led more by that now.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I really love that. And especially we're talking before about
the importance of material and buying across different brands, regardless
of price point or I guess relevance in the zeitgeist,
buying for material and buying for quality is so key,
(32:36):
especially these days. I want to know that we can,
whether it's fashion or interiors, that something will wear well,
or I can clean it properly, or I can just
just really live with it. And I find the natural
fabrics typically hold up better.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
They age well too. There's nothing wrong with things aging
over time.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Things become soft, cotton might soften, Silk becomes great after
you wash it a few times, it's even better, you
know things, I think, And that was working with Waverley
Mills as well. The materiality really was a major player
in terms of the design because I wanted a certain
red and I couldn't get that red because of the
(33:19):
undertones of the wool. And it really was like, no,
this is the red you're going to get. And I
love that red now because it was less blue. It's
also slightly more warm, and I love that has this
glow of It was just what the materiality wanted it
to be. That's what the wool was because it's also natural,
and I think that's the thing natural even in your home.
(33:39):
You know, things age well if it's good to start with.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Exactly, they tell a story. Yeah, next Genevieve's mystery draw moment,
and let's just say she did well not to cry. Well,
I know that you have brought him a mystery item today.
So we love it when guests bring in something from
(34:03):
We call it the mystery drawer, but it could be
a room. It couldn't be your house. It could be
a story. What have you brought in to share?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
It's in my pocket. It's so little, and I didn't
mean to find this, but I did find this. It's
actually well, I just put it there, yeah to you.
And actually it literally was from a drawer. So my
mother wore up Our Page by lan Von, and she
(34:32):
used to when she finished her perfume, she put them
in her scarf drawer and they usually silk all woolfscast
because that sort of scentered everything, or in her underwear
drawer or so when she died years ago, I found
that in one of her drawers. She used to just
keep perfume bottles that were old, and so I've kept
Somehow it stayed with me, and I think the story
(34:53):
of our page as well. It was so Jean Lanvon,
who was a she was a French fashion designer in
the Twin Tears, she came up with a perfume and
and her daughter named it. She said, it smells like
an our peg, which is an arpeggio, so lots of notes,
and so it's about notes and music. And because it's
got it smells like a thousand things at first it's
(35:16):
I can, yeah, I can still.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Just be it's beautiful and this this is the most
elegant compact bottle, isn't it gorgeous? The shiny black and
the polished gold.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I have no idea what era that was from the
probably eighties, but yeah, my dad used to bring it
home from her when he when he traveled. But yeah,
just take the scent takes me straight back. And I
would never wear it because it's her scent and I've
never actually smelted on anyone else. But I don't know.
It's I found that behind a picture of her today,
So I don't know. It sort of ends up in
my house in drawers or somewhere, but I smell it,
and I just it and smell is so important to
(35:52):
you know, me with my home or with wear or
you know. So it's I don't know, it's special and
it literally was has been in my drawer.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
You nailed the brief, I gotta say, it nailed the bridge.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I was looking around and then I just said that,
what's that? Yeah, but it's precious to me because I
like especious because there's nothing left in there. It's just
what remains. I think, there's something in that space too.
It's not like a full bottle, it's an empty bottle.
And yeah, I don't know. It reminds me when she
come home from dinner and she'd smell like dinner parties
and uperge and you know that smell and you kiss
your children good night. I can just remember that.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Thinking back to my childhood, Mum had this outfit. The
top was velvet and it was black with these like
glittery sparkles all over it. She had these glossy red
nails and it was peak eighties. Wow, And just I
thought she was so elegant. And she wore Coco chanel
(36:48):
when she would go out. And even now that the
smell of it, it reminds me of her. I don't
think she wears it anymore. But I can't wear it
because it was her scent.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yes, yeah, the only smells the same way on it.
And you want it to remain in your memory about
your mum exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
My mum's very much still with us. Just yeah, don't worry, mom,
But I love that about sim Do you have your
own signature s end?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I used to, and now I really just try different things.
I keep wearing my husband's perfumes for some reason, I
don't know. I just and I went to India a
couple of years ago and I got I thought, I
got sucked into this place where I bottle is pure
oils like amber and all these, and I thought on
the way, I thought, my God, may have I spent
(37:38):
like nine hundred dollars on oils I've been so I
was in Varanassi by myself. Anyway, They're so precious because
they're the pure oil. So I've got them all in
a sort of a crystal dish in my bathroom and
I put the tiniest bit on and it's all day.
It just smells and it's an oil. So I feel
really luckily.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
To precious A bargain, yes, and they're so precious.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I mean, I won't be going back to Varanasi for
a long time. And they're yeah, lovely. So I mix
the oils now a different sense. Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So we have a series of questions that we like
to ask all our guests, and we mix them up.
But let's get into it here. We go at your
place and knowing you live near the beach, are you
shoes on or off?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Oh? Shoes off? Not because I have a rule, but
because no one wears shoes mostly.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
How about what is one thing that is always fresh
in your home?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Well, usually greens from the garden. I just you know, clip,
I don't really have flowers anymore. Usually just have greens.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, they last longer, they do.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And like the green it sort of works in the house.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
How about them? On the same line as fresh bed sheets?
How do you change bed sheets?
Speaker 2 (38:55):
How do I change them? Like buy new ones?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Or are you on a weekly cycle? Some people are
on like an every two days change your bed sheets?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Well minimum weekly for sure? Yeah, I mean, yeah, who's
doing it?
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Every two days?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
That's all I do. I feel like I did before children.
But no, you know Sharyl before bed and you know,
no weekly.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
We're talking about home scent before So do you do
incense over candles all the time?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
No? I mix it up. The candle I'm loving at
the moment is actually one you know, Reck of the
Racontour did a partnership with hauseiveras the sparkling from Tasmania
and they sent me a candle. But it's like sea
salt and sage and it's all these really different animation. Yes,
it kind of smells like tasmania, but it's I love
(39:49):
that at the moment. So I got that burnie in the.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
House, so you better all the time or just for guests.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Well, I found it this morning in my daughter's room.
She'd taken it down and she'd fallen asleep, and I
was like, still on in the morning, so that one's gone.
Pretty much forgetting another one of those. But no with guests,
because I'm often cooking. I don't really like incense and
candles with food. I think that just a bit throws
you off for bits. So usually when people, I mean,
unless it's just drenths, I definitely have candles, yea more
(40:16):
than incense. Incense is more when I'm home, just you know,
during the day. Or incense is too much, I think
when you got with the smoke. So yeah, candles and
people come around with drinks, but no sense when a
dinner party, I just think it's too much.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I agree. Yeah, tell me about a design fail that
you have had in any home you've ever lived in
When you think back and go, oh my god, why
did I do that?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Ah? Well, A designed failing. Well. I had a beautiful
white leather couch and then I felt pregnant, so literally
I remember following it had beetroot sort of fingerprints all
over it and everything that was more like a like
a purchasing fail, I think.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
And is there a design moment in interiors that you
wish would come back?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Well, it's funny. My husband brought me back a chandelier.
He went on a surf trip to Argentina, and this
is when I knew I had to marry him or
proposed to him. But he came back and I picked
him u from the airport and under one hand he
had a surfboard. On the other hand he had a
box which is tinkling, and it was a chandelier. And
I am like, it's been under the house because I
haven't been feeling chandeliers. And now I'm like, I'm going
(41:28):
to put it back up in the bathroom and just
have it above the bath But it's a beautiful nineteen
twenties one sod that I wish chandeliers a maybe for me.
I was wishing a chandelier moment would come back, and
I feel like I'm going to have it's chandelier moment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
To you, what makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I think it's the energy of the house when you
walk in, and that can be you know, the scent
or the people that lived there, or I think I
felt that when we bought a house. I think it's
the energy of so many parts that makes it beautiful
to me, and the layers of memory.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Ye, I think we touched on Wardrobes before. Are you
a neat, put everything away kind of person or are
you a bit more casual with things around the house.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Not naturally. I definitely have to work at it because
I get I like get excited about different things or outfits.
I'll go, oh, wow, everything's just everywhere suddenly because I
kind of you know, it's like interiors as well. You
kind of get excited and things move around. So no,
I'm not naturally neat, but I've become I've had to
really make sure I thoughtfully put things away after I
(42:36):
play with them.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
So yeah, Now you've mentioned before that you think one
of the hallmarks of a really well designed or a
great home is when you have people over and the
wine drinking happens a little later than anticipated, and people
linger and are just really enjoying themselves in a space.
(43:00):
What kind of a host are you?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I don't think I'm a neat host, like everything's perfect
at all. I feel like things just sort of unfold,
you know. I think when people stay longer, like they're
playing with the candle wax and there's like, you know,
glasses and it's not it's just that the tunes are
playing and it just feels warm. I think it's just
like entertaining is like layering. I suppose there's just layers
(43:23):
of different courses of whatever and it's not too crazy.
I never let anyone wash up. I hate, you know.
I find when someone goes to wash up, it's like
that's the end of the night. So I'm like, just
ignore that. No one go near the kitchen, just leave it.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Guests aren't allowed. Also, I don't like it when everybody
gets up from the table to go and clean something,
and then you know that maybe two people left and
it's just has gone.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I'm suppose the same people that do the washing up
and the same people at stage. I'm not a washer upper.
My husband is, though. When we go somewhere, he'll be
in the kitchen. I'm like, oh, you could way in
there doing the washing up. You know, everyone goes. He's
so amazing. He washed up like.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
How do you hope people feel when they come to
your place.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
I hope people feel like they can breathe. I hope
they walk in and do what I do when I
walk in and see, you know, the date palm, and
just walk in and sort of breathe. I hope they
feel they can be there's themselves there and feel comfortable
and go and explore my stack of old poetry books,
or disappear and have a look at things of the art.
I just want people to feel like they can just
(44:28):
you know, be themselves.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Well, Genevieve, I hope that you felt that you could
be yourself here in our home, here at the edit.
And I just want to say thank you so much
for coming over and chatting with me. It's been such
a joy getting to know you more and the person
behind the design. It's been an absolute delight. Thank you
(44:53):
so much.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Thank you. It's been lovely stitching interiors and fashion together,
because it's all a world of creating beauty, really it
and why people love beauty. So sure, thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
It was incredible seeing Genevieve again after all these years
and catching up on everything she's been doing. I love
how she's gone from working backstage at fashion shows to
designing front of house uniforms for hotels. If blending fashion
in interiors is your thing, scroll back to the episode
with Brelin Turtin, where we chat everything about shopping, vintage,
(45:27):
buying new, and how to mix it all together. And
while you're there, make sure you subscribe to home Beautiful
on YouTube and follow us on your favorite podcast app.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
This is an our media podcast
Do your kids sneak your call?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Oh no, I mean my daughter does pilates with me
every morning, so that's good. I'm not embarrassing, although she
said I make too many noises in pilates, Like I
get a little, I get a yeah, I get feedback.
I feel like interiors is always you know, you sort
of know the provenance of the marble or the wood
as they talk about important Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Based on it. Yeah, people want to know.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
They want to know where that wood is from. They
want to know the glass or the task and fulear.
It's part of it. Fashion could learn a lot from
interiors in that sense, like where's the cushion you're from?
Where's the silk from? You know, it should be part
of the story of the garment.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I'm El Lovelock, editor in chief of Home Beautiful. Welcome
to the edit, where we bring you into beautiful homes
with the people who create them. Today, I'm reconnecting with
someone who has shaped the way I see fashion. Genevieve
Smart built her career designing for icons like Zimmerman and
Lisa Hoe, as well as her own label, Ginger and Smart.
(01:04):
Now her focus has shifted to collaborations that span industries
from travel to hospitality and a beautiful partnership that brings
fashion to a quintessentially Australian interiors brand. Genevieve and I
get into how fashion influences interiors but not necessarily in
the way you might think, and how she relies on
(01:25):
instinct to lead decisions in design, work and relationships. Genevieve's smart.
Welcome to the edit. It's so lovely having you here.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Thank you, Ell. It's great to be here in this
really homely space, and thank you. I've never done a
vodcast before, so this is a new experience.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
How exciting. Well, I hope it's a good one to
check at the end. We were chatting before about how
our paths have crossed in the past. So when I
worked in the shop that Lisa Hoe, you were the
creative director.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Design director sign that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Back then, I was wearing your fashions and admiring how
you would put everything together. And then more recently, actually
this morning, for listeners who aren't watching, I'm wearing a
navy blazer and this is not the navy blazer I
wanted to wear. I wanted to wear one of my favorites,
which is a vintage ginger and smart piece, but the
(02:27):
collars and the elbows are so fraid. I thought I
could take this out one more time, but then I
went to put it on and saw that it had
dried yogurt spilled all over the lining, courtesy.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Of my five year old Signs of Life.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Definitely can't wear that, but I just think it's so lovely,
isn't You can meet someone and have had a history
that you're not really aware of.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I think that studies sometimes a wonderful thing about fashion
and design as well. There's all these sort of roads
that kind of weave together, which is so lovely.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Absolutely, How did you start in fashion?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Gosh? Well, I studied at the Fashion Design Studio, which
is the you know, the fashion school that wherever one
goes to. And I was interning actually for Zimmerman. So
it was Nicki, Simone and I just the three of
us in their little South Dowling Street studio, and so
Nicky and I would be upstairs, you know, pattern making,
(03:25):
smoking Alpine Ciggy's, and like, you know, just still set
three of us. I was still and then you know,
they offered me a job when I finished, so I
sort of went straight from design school to working for
them for three three four years maybe, Yeah, so that was.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I've been lucky to have some pretty great female mentors
in my life. And they were incredible, you know, as sisters,
and you know, they were still at the markets and
up until I think it was their first show for
fashion week, at the first fashion Week. So I was
very fortunate to work with them for that time. Yeah,
and then I went to work. I went overseas and
(04:03):
worked a bit over there. I lived in New York
and then came back and worked for Lisa Hoe for
six or seven years, where I would have met you.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yes, Yeah, it was such a good time.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
It's a good time in fashion, wasn't it. She had
a brilliant business. And again she was a great mentor
for me and took a chance on me. I was
so young, and so I'm really grateful to those women
who have helped show me the path of the fashion
industry at that time.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So you studied fashion in Sydney, but you didn't grow
up here or you weren't always.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
No, When I was born in Sydney and then my parents,
my sister and I had to live in the UK,
so we lived there I lived there till I was
I think six or seven, and we lived in Cranleigh,
which is in Surrey, So I guess I grew up
there in those formative years of six months old to
like six, so you know, that's where it was my
(04:59):
first I guess experience of nature and smells and all
the things that influenced probably my work, I'm not sure,
but so so I had a really what in my
mind was pretty idellic sort of childhood.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
There a real Beatrix Potter, you know, that's what the
visions to me. Was it like that?
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, I certainly had a lot of Beatrix Potter, you know,
plates and crops and all the other things around the home.
My mum loved that, but yeah, it was we we
lived in very old We lived in a really old
sort of Tudor cottage which was at the bottom of
a hill where there was a colonel that lived in
the big manor house in a wheelchair I think his back.
My mom and dad used to take me up there
(05:38):
on the weekends to see him. But yeah, my dad
was he still is like six foot two or three.
So it was such a small ceiling in those Tudor cottages.
He literally had to bend his head to walk around
the house, and it was, you know, justus black and white,
you know, Tudor cottage with a little pig farm and
apple trees. My dad was a book publisher and my
mom was a book editor, so we didn't really have
(06:00):
a TV just because we had a lot of books
and dad would be tapping on his typewriter and going
into London for work, and so yeah, I guess it
was idealic in that we didn't have screens or tellvision
or any of that, so we kind of got to
create our own fun. But I think that's also why
we live where we do in Avalon, because there's a
feeling of a kind of village in a community there too,
(06:22):
and nature is really important.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So tell us about where you live. If if I
were to come over on the weekend and I come
to your front door, what does it look like? What's
the first thing I would see as you open the.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Door we walk through, you know, like we've got big
hedge out the front, so it's like an archway to
walk through it, like a hedge, so you sort of
walk into a space.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Hedge, which I have said on this podcast before, love
a hedge.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, our hedge has become a huge but we sort
of covered out this arch you walk through to get to,
you know, up the stairs to the door. So I
think when you walk in the front door or the
first thing you really see is the date palm of
our neighbors sort of in the distance, because our house
is sort of slightly elevated, so when you're walking you
just see open skies, a lot of like the tops
(07:12):
of sort of green trees. But right across from the
front door you see this date palm of the distance,
so it sort of frames the house. So I think
in the times it is there's built in the fifties.
It was one you know, and so it's one of
those beach houses, but it's been renovated a few times
since then. Yeah, you see a lot of green and sky.
(07:32):
If you come in in the day, that's what you see.
So I go straight to that. I guess if you
come in the evening, because we've got those partitions that
separate areas, you sort of might see a glimpse of
the lights in the lounge room or like a candle,
so you kind of can peek into. But it's quite
open plan. You literally open straight into the housepit. It's
very open. I think the last architects before we moved in,
(07:54):
they were sort of sustainable architects, so it's all kind
of very open. It's got there's no heating or anything
like that's got like we loovers everywhere, and it's all
on sort of solar and water tanks. So it's very
much about light in space. I guess when you walk in,
you see nature and light is the first thing. Probably.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
How do you feel when you walk in?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I always feel very calm, and I think again, it's
just that open space you walk in and I feel
happy to come home because it just it feels. Yeah,
it just has a lightness and a calm to it.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
And so it's all quite open. Is that intention? Is
that why you bought the place? Do you like to
live as a family all together or do I mean how.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well the kids are downstairs? I mean, which is actually great.
You walk in and then our bedroom is off to
the left overlooking this front carden, and then there's a
back deck that we live on it, and there's dining
room and all of that in the kitchen, and then
you go down the stairs and there's a rumpus room.
Better perfect, which is great because you know they're teenagers
(09:03):
now and so they need their own space there, and
they've got friends over, so we don't literally can't hear them,
even though it's just a set of stairs. When they
have all their friends over, it's just like kids.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
What does your home sound like? Ah?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I think in summer it sounds a lot like soicadas
and birds. And because we it's quite inside outside, so
we often have the back doors open where either lake
we've got sort of couches on the on the deck
and inside, so you're sort of living in both spaces.
So definitely sounds of nature. At nighttime you can hear
the waves crashing too, so beautiful. But mostly there's a
(09:41):
lot of music in our house.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
What do you play?
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Well, it's funny my husband. You know how you get
the Spotify think and it tells you how old you are.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, I haven't done it. I can't bear to do
it because I'd be one hundred.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Well I'm seventy two and I was horrified. And my
husband's twenty three or something. On his as he sees himself,
he's a bit of a DJ, so he's always like
mixing tunes, so often you hear him playing whenever he's
playing that sort of house music, which is fun because
we're not dying around. But I'm seventy two, and I
think that's because I listened to Nina Simone a lot,
(10:16):
like I get in a like I'll play Baltimore over
and over again, and I think it's I think she's
taken me down. Nina's maybe seventy two because I listened
to her a lot, but more embracing.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But yeah, but yeah, what does your home smell like?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It smells a lot actually incense, and we have candles
as well, but I feel like every time I travel
or we travel, we bring back incense and soeh, you know,
my daughter always says, oh, my friends always say the
house smells of incense, and I can't I love. I
think I love that sort of smoky, atmospheric gives and
I have them around the house in different pop plants,
sort of burning, and I.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Think it really adds to that memory. So when people
come over, like what you've just said saying the house
smells like incense, and to have a scent of your
home that people connect, I think it's beautiful. I remember
at Lisa Ho in the shops they always smelt like
the I really don't want to mess up the pronunciation,
(11:15):
but ajan provocateur, that's perfume because we sold it in
the little pink bottles.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh my god, I remember buying that for her. We
were in New York and we did a you know,
a trip and amber. Yeah. Beautiful, the pink bottle with
a black tassel.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yes, very provocative, and so I will always associate that
scent with Lisa ho on my time in those gorgeous shops.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I can smell it right now.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Do you have the same approach to fashion as you
do in teias or is it completely different?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It's interesting. I think it's got similarities in that you know,
you're expressing yourself in some way and it's very it's
layered and things collected over time. I feel the same
with my wardrobe. If you know you've got a good
she loaf you've had for a long time or whatever
it is, like, I think it's time layers a home
as it does your wardrobe, so you know, and styling.
(12:10):
I think the similarities. You know that with interiors, if
you've got like a red book that sort of can
often frame the room as a red sweater can around
your waist. I think there's a styling element, I think materiality,
but I think they do quite different things. I feel
like fashion is how you especial yourself in the world
that day, and your home is where you come to
sort of recover from being in the world in a way.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So I love that.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, I just think they're doing different things. As a person,
they do different things.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Have your kids picked up on this? Are they interested
in a sense of their own style?
Speaker 2 (12:48):
My daughter wants to be an interior designer or anterior architect,
so that's interesting. Yeah, she's always as I did as
a kid. I was always redoing my owned spaces all
the time, and I still will spend hours, Like I
think it's a bit of what if I'm procrastinating, I'll
just go and restyle a little part of my home
(13:09):
or my ages.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I go down a rabbit productive.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I feel like it is. Creativity takes so many forms.
And my daughter does the same thing. She's always re
working her space or the space downstairs. And now you know,
I mean with no pushing from me at all, but
she's just that's what she wants to do, which is
really nice. Yeah, my son has followed more, he wants
to be he wants to be an animated an animated
in animated film or that space, which is what my
(13:33):
husband does.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So you both have really cool jobs. Do your kids
think your call?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Oh no, no, I mean my daughter does pilarates with
me every morning, so that's good. I'm not embarrassing, although
she said I make too many noises in pilarates, like
I get a little I get it. Yeah, I get feedback.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Well, it's nothing like a child to bring you back down.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
She's going to be Emparison. One of her friends said,
why don't you meet her in Paris. I was like, no,
it's it's Poppy Strip. You know, she needs to just
have her time there. And you know what's their mom
coming to Paris? And Poppy was like, you're not a mom,
You're a mamma Sita. I was like, oh is that that?
That's a good thing. So yes, I am happy to
be a mama Sita. That sounds cool.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
We're going to Paris after the break. Genevieve touches on
her design ethos. It's not just about what it looks like,
it's about how it makes you feel. I want to
change things up a gear now because I want to
find out more about what you've done that is perhaps
(14:39):
fashion adjacent, because you're not just a fashion designer. You
have worked on products and projects that I'm not just
creating your own fashion line or a fashion line for
a brand. So what else have you worked on? Are
you working on?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Well, I mean, I'm in a really interesting chapter. I
think of my career right now since sort of departing
Ginger and Smart a few years ago, now I've learnt
the creativity is more than just fashion for me. And
I think being inside fashion for what was you know,
twenty years of Ginger and Smart and then you know
(15:22):
ten years with other brands. You're in the system, You're
in fashion, You're just in the world all the time.
And I think, and I'd say this about any industry,
and the same with interiors, like sometimes standing on the
edge of an industry looking back, you have a different perspective.
And I think my perspective on fashion, which I've been
my whole life, and I'm still working in fashion as well,
(15:43):
but I think even just understanding what fashion means to
people and what it is actually doing, like it's really
think it means to people? Well, I think it's about
connection with yourself. I think it's very sensory, just like
your home is. I think people don't fall in love
with a jacket. They fall in love with how it
(16:04):
makes them feel. It's very much or even a color,
like do they really love the color? Does it remind
them of something? Does it make them feel something that's
a good memory? Like, I think it's very it's a
very personal. The fashion is very personal. I mean I
the thirty years have been dressing people and things that
they wear out to present themselves that day in whatever
(16:24):
they're doing, and that's on their body in a way.
So it's very personal, and you know when you're in it,
you're just sort of doing it. But I think I'm
realizing now and because now I'm doing other creative projects
and exploring other things, like you know, I did airlines
and I'm doing things or hotels and restaurants and.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Tell us a bit about that for people who don't know,
have you done for airlines? I find it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Well, I did the the new uniform for jet Star
which launched last year. I think, so it's incredible. Yeah,
it was such an experienios even understanding how the pilots
want to feel and at the end of the day,
the pilots want to feel like they're on a Gucci
runway as they're walk getting off the plane. They want
to feel like everybody else wants to feel. They want
to feel slick and together and you know, but unfortunately
(17:13):
they had to drive a plane for eight hours before that,
so there's all the things you like where they have
to reach to. You know. See, I don't know any
of the terminology, but you know the things.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I completely understand what you're saying. If you're sitting that long,
you want to make sure that you still you look
good when you stand up and walk off the plane.
But you're right. You can be comfortable and reach without restriction.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
And you feel and you feel the best you can.
And obviously, you know, the cab and crew the same.
They want to feel great, they want to feel cool.
And I really enjoyed taking what I've learned in fashion
and applying it to things beyond just the fashion bubble
they lived in. Yeah, this is people who really have
to do very different jobs and it's all the same.
It's just it's fit, it's proportion, it's color, it's fabrication,
(17:56):
it's longevity. It's all the same things, it's just a
different well and that's been really exciting. Yeah, and I've
been working on a capsual collection for boutique hotels and restaurants,
which and does that look like.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
A capsual collection for hotels and restaurants?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Well, it came about because a friend of mine was
opening a restaurant in Bondi and said, can you help me?
I can't find anything from for the front of house
team to look good. And I was like, yeah, you know,
I'll have a look and send you some. And I
just couldn't find anything. But I've been working with Cargo Crew,
who's a company in Melbourne who make things for restaurants
and hotel like aprons, and they do They're really sort
(18:33):
of big in the work with group. And I know
Felicity and I rang and said, I just you know
a friend I can't find She just rang me the
next day and said, why don't we do this? She said,
why don't we do a fashion led like capsule that
we can take to really beautiful hotels and restaurants and
wellness spars around the world. And so we did, and
(18:54):
so it's very fashion led.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's genius. It is so clever because they do have
to wear a look that represents who they're working for,
and particularly in hospitality, I think part of being hospital
is presenting well.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Well, yeah, it's your brand language in a human but
when someone reads you at the front desk of a hotel,
that is the first expression of the brand exactly, and
they have to be wearing something that you go, oh,
I like that jacket or rush, what's that fabric? So
we've done like seasucker and all these kind of full fabrics,
which I've always loved. And also it's men's doing men's
as well, which I love so and I love interiors,
(19:32):
so you know, I got to sort of jump into
hotel interiors and restaurants and understand that what they wear
is part of the choreography of a restaurant. It's the music,
it's the lightings, it's the scent, and in uniforms is
part of that choreography. It's just a part of how
the brand is expressed, definitely, which is really what I've
(19:53):
been doing for thirty years. But now it's I don't know,
it's really great to be, you know, taking what I
do and putting in different parts of the world.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
It's quite exciting because I think so many of us,
regardless what industry we're in, we do get to a
point where you can master your craft and think well
what next? Yeah, well and how can I use this
or do this in a different way. It's nice to
be challenged. Is there a space in a hotel or
(20:22):
a restaurant that you thought this is really me?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Actually the Khalil up in Brisbane. Yeah, it's so beautiful
and they have picked up on the uniform collections, so
that was a really nice I was like, oh, because
I also love your hotel so much, so that was
that was really lovely. And I love Gimblet in Melbourne
as a you know, just as a restaurant. I think everything,
the coasters, the music, the dances of it all.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
So, Genevieve, I really want to know a bit more
about your perspective on moving through a creative industry or
industry because you have had parts of your career where
you have worked somewhere for ten years. You have had
parts where you have had your own brand, you collaborate
(21:13):
with brands. How have you navigated moving through as a creative.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
I think curiosity is really important and for me that
satisfies my I'm a curious person. So going from working
with a big sort of like a cultural institution on wardrobing,
I get to understand what happens there and in that
space and how humans want to feel when they're there.
And then with the airlines all with I think collaboration,
(21:43):
to me, I love because it just it's a different
part of my brain that's working. So for me, I
love working with other creative teams and understanding that business
and the people within that team. It comes a lot,
it's a lot to do with relationships. So just I
think that idea of I like connecting with other humans,
I like working with people. I love understanding other people's
(22:04):
businesses or brands. And then it's the same like I
still take what I do and I know and I love,
which is fashion and design and thirty years of understanding,
you know, proportion, which is across all of them, everybody.
You know, if it's an airline uniform or whatever it is,
it's often about proportion that people don't even realize. So
I think, because that's also hardwired, as I'm still learning
(22:25):
all the time that my natural curiosity about other industries
and people has been really important to navigate my way
through and I'm just finding this new sort of more
free stage of my career. I can really collaborate with
other people and understand. It's really satisfying, and I think, yeah,
so that's helped me. I just have to stay curious. Yeah,
(22:47):
I like learning still, and I like stepping into any
team and understanding and then you know. But it's also
important for me to have a constant as well, which
I'm working on a project as well, which is my own,
which is nice as well. So it's really lovely to
wake up in the morning and there's lots of things
going on. It's not always the same thing and that
I'm loving, like what am I going to work which? Which?
(23:08):
What am I going to work on today? And they
all sort of tie together. But I'm also really I'm
lucky enough to really pick and choose and work with
people that I can you know, if I don't feel that,
I don't know. I really need to feel the connection
with the personal the team is as a person and
know that it's going to feel easy. Not easy. Everything's challenging,
but just needs to have that ease and flow and
(23:28):
I can always feel that early on. So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
It's so refreshing to hear the way you described collaborating
because these days it's so there's so much focus on
collaborating between brands and my brand will help your brand
and will build a superbrand. But really you're bringing it
back to this is about people. These are the people
(23:53):
I want to work with, the people who I can
create with to make product to help even more people.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
It's a really.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Lovely approach that I think we forget so often that
it's not just about a brand. It's about the fulfillment
you get with working with a particular team or creating
a garment that you know will make someone feel amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, materiality. I mean, someone I've been working with was
really interested in working with future technology with fabrication, which
I'm so into. So I loved knowing that we walk
down this path together where we're working with fabrics that
are just being they're really just being developed now from
a secularity perspective and performance and how people are going
(24:44):
to feel so I can satisfy all of that. I'm
still so interested in all of that, and so that
feels good. But also knowing that that partner was because
I know they're interested in that they're sort of we've
got similar values. I suppose. I think that comes back
to that too, like they're interested in sustained ability or
circularity or longevity. Well, we have this on the table
has already values that we have, so you know, it's
(25:06):
just it's meant to be. When you hear those hear
those words.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Do you have a uniform of your own or do
you change what you wear all the time?
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Interesting, I think I think I do. I think as
I didn't think I did. I think just from having
a brand for so long, you move with every season,
you're doing something else. And I think that's been the
other thing about stepping away from seasonal collections and shopping
my own wardrobe and the things I hold on to
(25:34):
and the things I you know, give away, pass on
or they look at my wardrobe. Now. I have a
lot of jackets, and I always did love jackets, even
you know, as a teenager. So a lot of coats
for winter. I really love Kashmir. So I sort of
have ridiculous amounts of cashmere and crazy amounts of leather
as well. I'm like, how, oh, I got seventeen pairs
of leather pants. That's ridiculous how embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
What is your wardrobe storage? Like, she don't mention it,
that is, do you have a system or is it
just craming as much as you can.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I've had to have a system, which you know, just well,
I swap it out every season. So I'll bring my
winter things out and I'll be like surprised to see
it all again. Yeah, I have to not see it
for six months for it to be you know. Yeah,
I have my holiday sort of storage, and I have
to because otherwise, you know, it all sits down and
(26:24):
you come come somem you think you need something new.
So I feel like I bring it. I really just
I hold on to the beautiful fabrications, you know, the silks,
and my mum, our mum collected silk blousers. She just
wherever she went, you know, she'd buy secondhand always, so
you know, everything from like Rodney Clark, who was an
eighties Australian designer. I was friends with Sophie growing up,
(26:48):
and it's one of the reasons I think I went
into fashion, was just being in that world. But yeah,
ought to you know, an old Sarty silk tafford a shirt.
She just had so many, all the waist silk shirts.
So she collected silk and cashmere and beautiful coats, and
I think I remember her should be like, feel this,
this is wool, this is silk. We don't where you know,
(27:10):
like really understanding materiality is. And I think that's another
difference with interiors. I feel like interiors is always you know,
you sort of know the provenance of the marble or
the wood.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
They talk about importance it placed on it. Yeah, people
want to know.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You want to know where that wood is from. They
want to know the glass or the task from fulier.
It's part of it. But with fashion it doesn't seem
I think they could. Fashion could learn a lot from
interiors in that sense, like where's the Kashmir from, where's
the silk from? You know, it should be part of
the story of the garment.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I think so too. And there are some garments that
you have created for Waverley Mills. Speaking of provenance, I
only learned recently that they really are everything in Australia,
which is amazing and based in Tasmania, and occasionally they
will send some things to the mainland to do, but
(28:06):
that's as far as it goes. And I think that's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Well, it's airloone pieces, you know, one hundred and fifty
two years. It's just a really long time to survive
and thrive. Really, I mean working with them was so
humbling and to it was the perfectly you know, stepping
back into fashion and materiality and textures again. I think
(28:30):
just seeing the process so that the sheep are within
fifteen kilometer radius generally, so they cut the sheet, the
wool comes in, and these bales of wool and then
you go. All the processes are under the same roof,
and these really old machinery and some are super new
as well, but just every process, the combing and the spinning,
and there's someone who just dies all the colors in
(28:51):
little glass pots that just so hands on. It's all
dried in the sun. It's just beautiful, and the quality
is just I don't know, I feel like you can
always feel to mania in the you can feel that
provenance deeply. It was so humbling to step into that space.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Doesn't even have a loom that they still use from
the fifties.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Talking of good design, I mean a design it even
looks cool as well. That machine like it looks like
a space ship, like the buttons are all cool. It's
just yeah, it's a real lesson. It was a real
back to this is what craft and design is really about.
And because they're more known for interiors and rugs, they
approached me because they wanted to do a line of
wearables because.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Of what did you design for them for our listeners?
I know obviously coveting, but what did what did you design?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, it was just a capsule of three pieces really,
so it's a scarf and a like a like a wrap,
and then like a cape. So it was inspired by
the idea of energy. So the colors. The good thing
about working with them was they were they were happy,
and they were excited to work on new ways of
doing things as well. So rather than wearing a block
(29:59):
colored skuf, it was about, for example, the red scarf
goes I think the sixteen shades of red, so it
looks like the lights falling on the scarf. But this
amazing color technician just we discussed all the colors. I
would send swatches down, dyed all the different colors, and
then they've they've woven it together so it just looks
like the lights like sort of brushed across it like
(30:21):
a painting, So that was incredible. So that was a scarf.
And then there's like a shorter rap which is super
fringy and fun. It's got like fringing down the vertical
side rather than the end, so when you put it on,
it just feels quite textual and glamorous.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Oh that's gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And then there's a cape, which I don't know. I
feel it feels like a superwoman cape. You can sort
of belt it or like I've wanted to art galleries
I've wanted after pilates. It's just like a piece. I
wear it at home to work. Sometimes it's like a
big cape. But they're all unisex as well, so that's okay.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
It's like a hug. Yes, yes, that's how I feel
about a cape.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Oh my gosh, is a she hug? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
When you are designing, do you design for yourself what
you would want to wear or are you designing.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
For other people?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And if it is other people, do you have a
customer in mind or someone aware in mind?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
That is so interesting. I feel like I design more
for how I want to feel and how I want
to look, because I think that comes first, and also
how I think maybe other people want to want to feel,
So I think as a designer, I would I went
(31:40):
through what I want to wear, and I think that's
quite limiting, just because what you want to wear its
body shapes. What I was doing is the job I had.
It's very kind of siloed. But I think when it
comes to how people want to feel is what I
lead with now a lot more like materiality, Like for Kashmir,
how I want it to feel on my skin is
I think most people want to feel held and beautiful,
(32:02):
and if somebody wants to feel scratchy and polyester, they
can have that. But for me, I feel like most
people want to feel especially on it's against your skin. Yeah,
So I think I'm led more by that now.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I really love that. And especially we're talking before about
the importance of material and buying across different brands, regardless
of price point or I guess relevance in the zeitgeist,
buying for material and buying for quality is so key,
(32:36):
especially these days. I want to know that we can,
whether it's fashion or interiors, that something will wear well,
or I can clean it properly, or I can just
just really live with it. And I find the natural
fabrics typically hold up better.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
They age well too. There's nothing wrong with things aging
over time.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Things become soft, cotton might soften, Silk becomes great after
you wash it a few times, it's even better, you
know things, I think, And that was working with Waverley
Mills as well. The materiality really was a major player
in terms of the design because I wanted a certain
red and I couldn't get that red because of the
(33:19):
undertones of the wool. And it really was like, no,
this is the red you're going to get. And I
love that red now because it was less blue. It's
also slightly more warm, and I love that has this
glow of It was just what the materiality wanted it
to be. That's what the wool was because it's also natural,
and I think that's the thing natural even in your home.
(33:39):
You know, things age well if it's good to start with.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Exactly, they tell a story. Yeah, next Genevieve's mystery draw moment,
and let's just say she did well not to cry. Well,
I know that you have brought him a mystery item today.
So we love it when guests bring in something from
(34:03):
We call it the mystery drawer, but it could be
a room. It couldn't be your house. It could be
a story. What have you brought in to share?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
It's in my pocket. It's so little, and I didn't
mean to find this, but I did find this. It's
actually well, I just put it there, yeah to you.
And actually it literally was from a drawer. So my
mother wore up Our Page by lan Von, and she
(34:32):
used to when she finished her perfume, she put them
in her scarf drawer and they usually silk all woolfscast
because that sort of scentered everything, or in her underwear
drawer or so when she died years ago, I found
that in one of her drawers. She used to just
keep perfume bottles that were old, and so I've kept
Somehow it stayed with me, and I think the story
(34:53):
of our page as well. It was so Jean Lanvon,
who was a she was a French fashion designer in
the Twin Tears, she came up with a perfume and
and her daughter named it. She said, it smells like
an our peg, which is an arpeggio, so lots of notes,
and so it's about notes and music. And because it's
got it smells like a thousand things at first it's
(35:16):
I can, yeah, I can still.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Just be it's beautiful and this this is the most
elegant compact bottle, isn't it gorgeous? The shiny black and
the polished gold.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I have no idea what era that was from the
probably eighties, but yeah, my dad used to bring it
home from her when he when he traveled. But yeah,
just take the scent takes me straight back. And I
would never wear it because it's her scent and I've
never actually smelted on anyone else. But I don't know.
It's I found that behind a picture of her today,
So I don't know. It sort of ends up in
my house in drawers or somewhere, but I smell it,
and I just it and smell is so important to
(35:52):
you know, me with my home or with wear or
you know. So it's I don't know, it's special and
it literally was has been in my drawer.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
You nailed the brief, I gotta say, it nailed the bridge.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
I was looking around and then I just said that,
what's that? Yeah, but it's precious to me because I
like especious because there's nothing left in there. It's just
what remains. I think, there's something in that space too.
It's not like a full bottle, it's an empty bottle.
And yeah, I don't know. It reminds me when she
come home from dinner and she'd smell like dinner parties
and uperge and you know that smell and you kiss
your children good night. I can just remember that.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Thinking back to my childhood, Mum had this outfit. The
top was velvet and it was black with these like
glittery sparkles all over it. She had these glossy red
nails and it was peak eighties. Wow, And just I
thought she was so elegant. And she wore Coco chanel
(36:48):
when she would go out. And even now that the
smell of it, it reminds me of her. I don't
think she wears it anymore. But I can't wear it
because it was her scent.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Yes, yeah, the only smells the same way on it.
And you want it to remain in your memory about
your mum exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
My mum's very much still with us. Just yeah, don't worry, mom,
But I love that about sim Do you have your
own signature s end?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I used to, and now I really just try different things.
I keep wearing my husband's perfumes for some reason, I
don't know. I just and I went to India a
couple of years ago and I got I thought, I
got sucked into this place where I bottle is pure
oils like amber and all these, and I thought on
the way, I thought, my God, may have I spent
(37:38):
like nine hundred dollars on oils I've been so I
was in Varanassi by myself. Anyway, They're so precious because
they're the pure oil. So I've got them all in
a sort of a crystal dish in my bathroom and
I put the tiniest bit on and it's all day.
It just smells and it's an oil. So I feel
really luckily.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
To precious A bargain, yes, and they're so precious.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
I mean, I won't be going back to Varanasi for
a long time. And they're yeah, lovely. So I mix
the oils now a different sense. Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So we have a series of questions that we like
to ask all our guests, and we mix them up.
But let's get into it here. We go at your
place and knowing you live near the beach, are you
shoes on or off?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Oh? Shoes off? Not because I have a rule, but
because no one wears shoes mostly.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
How about what is one thing that is always fresh
in your home?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Well, usually greens from the garden. I just you know, clip,
I don't really have flowers anymore. Usually just have greens.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, they last longer, they do.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And like the green it sort of works in the house.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
How about them? On the same line as fresh bed sheets?
How do you change bed sheets?
Speaker 2 (38:55):
How do I change them? Like buy new ones?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Or are you on a weekly cycle? Some people are
on like an every two days change your bed sheets?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Well minimum weekly for sure? Yeah, I mean, yeah, who's
doing it?
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Every two days?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
That's all I do. I feel like I did before children.
But no, you know Sharyl before bed and you know,
no weekly.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
We're talking about home scent before So do you do
incense over candles all the time?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
No? I mix it up. The candle I'm loving at
the moment is actually one you know, Reck of the
Racontour did a partnership with hauseiveras the sparkling from Tasmania
and they sent me a candle. But it's like sea
salt and sage and it's all these really different animation. Yes,
it kind of smells like tasmania, but it's I love
(39:49):
that at the moment. So I got that burnie in the.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
House, so you better all the time or just for guests.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Well, I found it this morning in my daughter's room.
She'd taken it down and she'd fallen asleep, and I
was like, still on in the morning, so that one's gone.
Pretty much forgetting another one of those. But no with guests,
because I'm often cooking. I don't really like incense and
candles with food. I think that just a bit throws
you off for bits. So usually when people, I mean,
unless it's just drenths, I definitely have candles, yea more
(40:16):
than incense. Incense is more when I'm home, just you know,
during the day. Or incense is too much, I think
when you got with the smoke. So yeah, candles and
people come around with drinks, but no sense when a
dinner party, I just think it's too much.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I agree. Yeah, tell me about a design fail that
you have had in any home you've ever lived in
When you think back and go, oh my god, why
did I do that?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Ah? Well, A designed failing. Well. I had a beautiful
white leather couch and then I felt pregnant, so literally
I remember following it had beetroot sort of fingerprints all
over it and everything that was more like a like
a purchasing fail, I think.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
And is there a design moment in interiors that you
wish would come back?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Well, it's funny. My husband brought me back a chandelier.
He went on a surf trip to Argentina, and this
is when I knew I had to marry him or
proposed to him. But he came back and I picked
him u from the airport and under one hand he
had a surfboard. On the other hand he had a
box which is tinkling, and it was a chandelier. And
I am like, it's been under the house because I
haven't been feeling chandeliers. And now I'm like, I'm going
(41:28):
to put it back up in the bathroom and just
have it above the bath But it's a beautiful nineteen
twenties one sod that I wish chandeliers a maybe for me.
I was wishing a chandelier moment would come back, and
I feel like I'm going to have it's chandelier moment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
To you, what makes a home beautiful?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
I think it's the energy of the house when you
walk in, and that can be you know, the scent
or the people that lived there, or I think I
felt that when we bought a house. I think it's
the energy of so many parts that makes it beautiful
to me, and the layers of memory.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Ye, I think we touched on Wardrobes before. Are you
a neat, put everything away kind of person or are
you a bit more casual with things around the house.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Not naturally. I definitely have to work at it because
I get I like get excited about different things or outfits.
I'll go, oh, wow, everything's just everywhere suddenly because I
kind of you know, it's like interiors as well. You
kind of get excited and things move around. So no,
I'm not naturally neat, but I've become I've had to
really make sure I thoughtfully put things away after I
(42:36):
play with them.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
So yeah, Now you've mentioned before that you think one
of the hallmarks of a really well designed or a
great home is when you have people over and the
wine drinking happens a little later than anticipated, and people
linger and are just really enjoying themselves in a space.
(43:00):
What kind of a host are you?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I don't think I'm a neat host, like everything's perfect
at all. I feel like things just sort of unfold,
you know. I think when people stay longer, like they're
playing with the candle wax and there's like, you know,
glasses and it's not it's just that the tunes are
playing and it just feels warm. I think it's just
like entertaining is like layering. I suppose there's just layers
(43:23):
of different courses of whatever and it's not too crazy.
I never let anyone wash up. I hate, you know.
I find when someone goes to wash up, it's like
that's the end of the night. So I'm like, just
ignore that. No one go near the kitchen, just leave it.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Guests aren't allowed. Also, I don't like it when everybody
gets up from the table to go and clean something,
and then you know that maybe two people left and
it's just has gone.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I'm suppose the same people that do the washing up
and the same people at stage. I'm not a washer upper.
My husband is, though. When we go somewhere, he'll be
in the kitchen. I'm like, oh, you could way in
there doing the washing up. You know, everyone goes. He's
so amazing. He washed up like.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
How do you hope people feel when they come to
your place.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
I hope people feel like they can breathe. I hope
they walk in and do what I do when I
walk in and see, you know, the date palm, and
just walk in and sort of breathe. I hope they
feel they can be there's themselves there and feel comfortable
and go and explore my stack of old poetry books,
or disappear and have a look at things of the art.
I just want people to feel like they can just
(44:28):
you know, be themselves.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Well, Genevieve, I hope that you felt that you could
be yourself here in our home, here at the edit.
And I just want to say thank you so much
for coming over and chatting with me. It's been such
a joy getting to know you more and the person
behind the design. It's been an absolute delight. Thank you
(44:53):
so much.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Thank you. It's been lovely stitching interiors and fashion together,
because it's all a world of creating beauty, really it
and why people love beauty. So sure, thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
It was incredible seeing Genevieve again after all these years
and catching up on everything she's been doing. I love
how she's gone from working backstage at fashion shows to
designing front of house uniforms for hotels. If blending fashion
in interiors is your thing, scroll back to the episode
with Brelin Turtin, where we chat everything about shopping, vintage,
(45:27):
buying new, and how to mix it all together. And
while you're there, make sure you subscribe to home Beautiful
on YouTube and follow us on your favorite podcast app.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
This is an our media podcast
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