Q&A with Fashion Designer Carly Hallahan
Imagine moving from Canberra to London and starting your own fashion label and having it worn by some of the world biggest celebrities like Keira Knightly. For Carly Hallahan this dream became a reality when she started London based fashion label Jarlo. So how did Jarlo begin and where does Carly get her inspiration?
Q: When did you decide to start up Jarlo and decide that was the career you wanted to peruse?
A: I worked for a wholesale fashion label in London and I did that for a couple of years and one day I just started to think ‘you know what, I reckon I could do this’ and I’d always working in retail so I kind of thought to myself well maybe I’ve got a bit of an idea of what women want you know. I was throwing around the idea and because of what I have experienced in my life I think it just makes you throw caution to the wind and you think I’m not scared, this stuff doesn’t scare me, what’s the worst that could happen? I could fail well you know big deal, just do it.
Q: How was the name Jarlo created?
A: Jarlo the actual name, mum and I were throwing around ideas, and I said to her I have this idea tell me what you think of it, everyone calls me Carl and everyone calls my partner, Joe, Jo-Jo and we mixed them and came up with Jarlo. So there at the Bullet bar in Kowloon, Hong Kong with a couple of chardonnays, Jarlo was created.
Q: So once you had your manufacturer, created the name and started producing, how did you go about selling your products?
A: So I knew that I wanted to start in Portobello Road Markets, it’s where Sass and Bide got their start, it’s where so many labels that I knew and loved got their starting point. To get a spot on the golden mile, where you need to be if you’re a fashion retailer, you need to get up at 4:30 am and get down there at 5:15 am and just wait. And the first time we did it we got sent home, because there were too many people, so we went the following week and set up and that’s where Jarlo began. Then it moved pretty quickly from there, I did the markets for about six months. A couple of months later in another boutique I had Jarlo stocked was called the Laden Showroom, which was the place to be stocked, ASOS saw me there. I’ll never forget getting that call saying ASOS wants to stock three of your styles, and they said ok we are going to take 600 pieces and I was like oh my God amazing, and that’s not very big now but at the time that was amazing.
Q: How did the online store begin?
A: The online store came after ASOS and it started because of PR, we had our first celebrity step out in Jarlo, Anna Friel. Friel was doing Breakfast at Tiffany’s the stage show on the West End and every night she was stepping out of the stage doors and at the time the paparazzi were snapping her left right and center and her outfits were in the newspaper every single day. And she stepped out in a Jarlo tea dress, I get a phone call from a PR agent and they were like you have to have PR and I was like well it’s not in the budget, and they said I had to and I had to have an online store because if your going to have PR we need to lead them to something. So literally overnight we had to come up with an online store, we got PR and then the next minute we’ve had some good celebrities in our dresses and that was thanks to PR, and that’s one of the reasons I think Jarlo has grown as quickly as it has. We had Keira Knightly step out in a Jarlo dress and it was everywhere, it was in every magazine.
. . . showcasing our formal side? #jarlo national #wedding show✨
A photo posted by Carly Hallahan (@carlyhallahan) on
Q: What’s your proudest achievement within Jarlo?
A: You know what actually, it isn’t what people would think, it’s not the celebrities, it’s not the amazing response and you know what we get from customers like ASOS and Revolve.com and all the biggies, it’s not that stuff. My greatest achievements are the emails that come through on our info email with the pictures of a bridal party decked out in Jarlo and you have this bride that writes to you and says you have no idea how much you’ve made my day special, or we’ll get an email from a mother saying I just wanted to send you a photo of my daughter at prom and because of your dress she felt like a princess. And I know it sounds a bit cliche but that’s the stuff that I’m super proud of.
Q: Where do you get inspiration?
A: All different places, sometimes it can be from films and sometimes I can just get it from music or sometimes from pictures. You know I can be on holiday, I went to Marrakesh a few years ago and the color and all the fabrics and everything. It just makes you think of orange and turquoise and I think of all the old style icons and that sort of stuff inspires me. It’s always something different, but I think like when you’re creating anything you pull from certain things. I do a lot of research, I’m online a lot, I’m looking at a lot of pictures, I’m really into blogs, I’m a real internet surfer. Sometimes I can be inspired by poetry, I mean you can hear something and think of I can visualize that.
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