August 8th, 2017: I had just arrived in Paris, it was overcast & cold day, I was extremely tired from 24 hours of travelling, & yet I felt something pulling me... The energy of Paris captivated me instantly, the smells, the people, the sounds, & that incredible sense of being present in a city with a vast calling from history.

La Fleur was born after a mere 12 hours of me having set foot in Paris. I felt her energy, I felt energy of the people whom were walking on the cobble stone streets. Watching Parisenne women became my favourite thing to do, the red-lip & bare face thing is very me. How they spoke, & the food they were eating, & their animated hand gestures as they spoke. I felt a surge of inspiration, despite my very sleep derprived state.

That afternoon, I rushed back to my Air BNB in Montmartre - an area in Paris that has seen so many great artists & writers create - & I sketched the intial concept for La Fleur. Flowers sprang to mind instantly, flowers that weren't perfect, the true beauty in the imperfections flowers always seem to relfect & represent. In my mind I could see gold, a lot of it! So many of the structures in Paris have gold embellishments, or coatings, & being a woman whom loves her gold, my eyes were darting around the buildings in awe. The photo above was one wrote & I took, as soon as I had penned-to-paper the intial concept for the designs. I was budding with excitement!

For those who may not know, I am half Italian & I lived in Italy until I was around 4 years old. European culture flows in my viens, & there was something so powerful about being back for the first time since I left for Australia with my Mum & sister all those years ago. I beleive that being mindful of these beautiful emotions I was feeling, impacted my experience in the most magical of ways.

All 9 pieces in La Fleur have been hand sketched by myself & our design team, they were born from a mere feeling, & flowed into a full collection & concept. This collection was 7 months in the making, working on a project for that long, in turn, feels like with every collection birthed, I too birth a part of my soul. A new part. I am always being a wittness to my own growth as a designer, & area's of growth required on this journey. It's truly quite a surreal experience.

This collection was crafted & birthed from a very creative energy & intention. Every single point of creation is done with care, attention to detail & with so much love. Thank-you for being on this journey with us.

If you would like to see more of my visit to France last year, click here.

Fabienne x