How Ambra Maddalena launched her namesake sustainable swimwear label that shares her love for the ocean.
What inspired you to launch Ambra Maddalena?
Originally, it started as a small project after I finished my double degree in Broadcasting and Journalism at university and a fashion internship at our local newspaper’s glossy fashion magazine. It soon grew into a brand that inspired a movement of sustainable yet fun swimwear loved by many, I still get asked to bring a swim range out every now and again. At the time in 2017, eco-friendly or sustainable clothing was mainly reserved for loose, hemp styles in muted tones. I wanted to launch a brand that showed you that you didn’t have to compromise style for sustainability. I am and have always been inspired by Italy, due to my background and our first campaign leaned heavily into that. We hired a yacht to sail down the Swan River in Perth and I gave
the captain a bottle of rum to say thank you for his time on the day. My budget was so low at the time and we used the photographer’s partner and a model through Instagram, however the results were incredible – it was the best launch campaign.
Being based in Australia, how did your love for the ocean emulate through the brand?
My connection to the ocean is paramount to who I am. I start and end every summer’s day with a swim. It’s my sanctuary of peace and place to cleanse. If I have had a bad day or something hasn’t gone right, I run to the sea and it’s truly like a fresh and clean slate for the rest of the day. My partner and I currently live across from the beach and we get to watch the sunset over the ocean every single day.
There are few moments in my life where the ocean has left me speechless, recently on the Amalfi coast I floated in-between two cliffs with my ears underwater and listened to rocks and shells wash across the ocean floor. Growing up in the south-west of Western Australia, the beaches are like nothing I have seen anywhere else. The water is crystal clear and the sand is white and even though I am so blessed to travel and see the world – there is really no place like my home.
The pieces are created with ECONYL, a high quality reusable and regenerated nylon fibre – tell us more.
When I started working with my first manufacturer, I said I wanted to be as sustainable as possible in every aspect of the supply chain. He mentioned that a new ItalianNylon was available and that it was made from the collection and regeneration of ocean plastic and waste – I was sold. Growing up by the ocean in Western Australia, it was and is so important to me to take care of our oceans.
The ocean to me has an energetic pull that I can’t get away from and a cleansing ability that I have always turned to. ECONYL was strict with who they positioned themselves with and once I had signed the contract to partner with them, we were on our way! From there, I aimed to have as many aspects of the business as sustainably conscious as possible – from using cotton bags and 100 per cent paper satchels for shipping, ordering the minimum so that we weren’t left with any dead stock to removing individual packaging for bulk orders.
I thought to have the stock arrived unpackaged and unlabelled was a great idea at the time but it ended up being a lot of extra work on my side as when they shipped hundreds of bikinis to me, it meant I had to riffle through boxes and boxes of loose bikinis when someone ordered online.
The brand is made in Bali – talk us through the creative process.
My creative process could start with something as small as a flower or a moment in time, I really try to not force it and just be inspired by life’s small moments. As I moved into regular fashion seasons with agents when I introduced clothing into the mix, it was harder for me to be so free as I now had strict deadlines to work to. Now, I don’t think fashion seasons online are so strict – at Ambra Maddalena, we say it’s always summer somewhere! I will sketch or illustrate designs with watercolour and then work with my three manufacturers on their specialty. I have one for clothing and crochet, one for swimwear and one for our sheer dresses. Once I receive the fabric swatches and decide on a texture, I then send off colour choices and our custom prints for swatches to test the final colour on the fabric.
I have always worked with a graphic designer to create custom prints for our clothing. Once I have approved the swatches of prints and colours, the next part I do is a little different to others – I think! Traditionally,samples are made in a toile and once the final fit is approved, it is then sampled in the toile until perfect in the final fabric for the photoshoot. I do it a little differently in the sense I would get the first sample done in the final fabric, photograph it for the look book and if it went into production, I would then finalise the fit of the approved styles. This was a little trick I found later on to save on sampling costs and shipping back and forth as out of range of 50, only 10 or so would make it to bulk production.
Each silhouette is designed to fit your form – how did you perfect this?
I work very closely with my pattern maker, Bridie, who actually was my very first intern. We have built a close relationship over the years and we try very hard to make the fits as flexible as possible, where possible – whether that be a relaxed fit around the body and elasticated sleeves for our dresses or belts that don’t have fixed holes. Additionally, our famous sheer fabrication is an ultra stretchy, lightweight and crinkle free material that is a cotton and nylon blend that has a lot of stretch in it. We currently offer size S, M and L that fits at 6-16 but are looking to expand the size range further as we move our dispatch centre to the UK as of October 2024.
Your brand has been worn recently by Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber and Roxie Nafousi – how does it feel to have built a global brand?
I’ll never get over Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Rita Ora, Kate Walsh and Shanina Shaik in our dresses. I will be forever thankful
to girls from Toorak to Texas who have purchased our dresses for their holidays. We just launched a new range of fig, lavender and kiwi coloured styles that we loved seeing over our account this European summer. I personally took them on my holiday to Italy and I was reminded (again) how great these dresses are for summer holidays.
Keeping sustainability front of mind when creating a brand requires you to go the extra mile – how have you undertaken this?
It really does add additional consideration and work to the brand. Although Ambra Maddalena has had some amazing successes,
it is still a very small brand and 100 per cent funded by me. Sometimes I think: “Oh I want glossy packaging and big boxes and new tags and custom tissue paper for every drop” but for me – it’s too much wastage and I feel sick when I think of it all going
to landfill just because I ordered too much of one thing. I have a policy that we have to use everything we have in stock (in terms of packaging) before we order more. I do understand that customers want a nice unboxing experience and I want to give that However, knowing that most of what comes with an order gets thrown in the bin, I think we have found a nice middle ground. When a customer orders online, we use these branded paper bags, 1 x card (which has a holiday checklist you can tick off when
you land in your destination, I personally love this!) and of course, the dress. When we ship in bulk to stores, we use
a paper starch bag that breaks down in the compost. On top of the wastage consideration in packaging, using ecofriendly components is costly and the brand absorbs that cost so that our customers don’t have to sacrifice style for
sustainability. I also try to repurpose dead stock as muchas possible – I had one intern make small bags for bikinis
out of archived one piece swimsuits that we gifted with
online purchases a couple of years ago.
What advice would you give to your younger-self?
To be more informed about the costs of running the business. With how my personality is, I often just think “things will just work out” and I may have not done as much research into the costs of something or as much as I should have. I would say to myself that it’s not possible to run a successful business on your own with you trying to do absolutely everything. Outsource what you are not good at and focus on what you are good at.
I know that’s not original, but it’s true. If you can’t afford to pay someone, look to find a mentor or try to exchange something you are good at that could help the person helping you. I exchanged a lot of photography sessions back in the day for a meeting here and there. I wish I had someone early on that took care of the financial side whilst I could just be creative, that’s where I made a few mistakes.
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What’s next for the Ambra Maddalena?
We are moving our dispatch to the UK which I am so excited by. A lot of our customers are in the UK and we are very excited to be offering them faster and cheaper shipping. We are also creating a small capsule of RTW pieces and a new range of sheer dresses for European summer. We are also looking to partner with likeminded people and businesses for lifestyle activations so that we can build a community for our followers.
This is The Precious Issue – what precious qualities do you think are necessary to succeed in business?
To be kind. So many of my opportunities and connections have come about from just simply being kind. I have always been unapologetically myself in every instance, whether that being a little chaotic with how I express my thoughts and excitement, or being overly thankful and grateful to everyone I work with or being honest about business struggles and mistakes. Although it can be embarrassing and humbling to share that a season may not have gone as well as you had hoped, or you are comparing your brand to what you see online, being honest in a way that’s comfortable for me has opened up a lot of conversations that have ultimately helped me in the end.
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