sQ

Late last year I covered the launch of sQ's debut collection here on A New Muse.

Recently I caught up with the girls to find out what inspires them and to pick their brains on what sQ is all about......

1. Describe yourself in a sentence.

Vicki: I am a really, really weird normal person.

Angelique: I am a small, very small, part of the big scale.

2. What is the first thing you ever designed?

Vicki: Funnily enough the first thing I ever designed was when i was about 6 years old, my parents had homeware stores in Westfield shopping centres, so my sister and i would have to stay all day with them at the shops. There were plastic bags in 3 sizes, and in a pure state of boredom one day i decided to cut the bottom off the medium size and wear it as a tank (arms in each loop). I was pretty pleased with myself, I even wrote on the front "vicki rules" in thick red texta and i made one for my sister in the bigger size. Thinking back, it was probably one of the most satisfying moments of my life! ha ha

Angelique: As long as I can remember I've cut things up, had something in my head that I wanted to wear, couldn't' find it and so found the closest thing to it, then made it how I wanted to. I went to an arts and crafts kind of school, so we did a lot of knitting and sewing. My Steiner education prepared me for this job, we even made things to express our mathematics class! We would sing a song or make an outfit to represent the cycles of the moon!

3. Why did you choose to develop your second label sQ and what sets it apart from myPetsQuare?

Vicki: Angelique and I consider myPetsQuare our first child and for the same reason any parents have more kids, we felt ready to expand our dynasty he he. sQ is for an older market than MPS, for the ladies and gentlemen so to speak. MPS is based on youth and spontaneity, exploration and fun where as sQ is more settled, not less fun just more sophisticated and faaancy, perhaps even more sexy. There is allllot of attention paid to details and special embellishments so that the sQ customer feels really special in every piece.

Angelique: sQ has hit the market and stores who wanted to be a part of the myPetsQuare revolution, but felt that it was too young for them. sQ is definitely sexier, and the woman who wears sQ knows who she is and what she wants, and also how to get it. myPetsQuare isn't quite sure yet, and is still in the experimental stage of life, taking on tangents that can be extremely different to the previous tangent.

4. Describe your debut collection?

Vicki: Every season, sQ will be set in a different mansion and the collection will reflect the lifestyle of the particular manor, its era and surrounding. The launch season is set in a haunted mansion where we thought of this story of a curious and naive girl who enters this spooky castle and explores the rooms only to find herself overwhelmed and taken away by the ectoplasmic energy of the place. Within its compounds, she experiences an immense sense of liberation, kind of like growing up through feeling. She meets a boy and they fall in love and explore together. The main inspiration came from a Robert Browning poem called 'Porphyria's Lover', which is a bit of a twisted story but the tone and mood set in it is spot on. So far as ectoplasmic energy goes, David Lynch is the king of evoking that almost dirty feeling of not being alone when you think you are; Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet in particular were in the back of my mind as well. We named the range "Porphyria, The Velvet Cherry and The Ectoplasmic manor". Ange and i have the best time thinking of names for things, she is the master if you ever want a name for anything, she's your girl!
The colours in the range are dark - Black, Navy, Grey and a dash of Red. We got our hands on the best lace overseas to make long sleeve lace dresses and lace lip details on tops and soft jersey biker jackets. basically, we've taken traditionally structured shapes like tuxedo jackets and biker jackets and made them in more fluid fabrics.

5. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Vicki: Ange and her husband are a crazy creative duo so usually a good chat with them will get the creative brain spinning. Also of course, movies and books, both art books and novels... but mainly from people, the kind that walk down the street so stylishly and they're only wearing a black tee and jeans. I find a good sense of style inspiring, in any form.

6. What is the best thing about what you do?

Vicki: It has stopped my retail problem! ha ha, also working with people i admire and it being ok for me to text Ange that I've gone for a swim and not to bother me ha ha, we work on our time, which mainly ends up being a lot more hours then a normal job but we do what we do when we want to do it and somehow it all gets done,mostly he he

Angelique: Being a creative nutcase! I get to express myself and even though Vicki holds the reins back sometimes, lots of the time that fine tuning ends up with something really fun! In a way, self expression and creativity to me is all I need. The satisfaction and fun is the best part. Vicki is a brilliant partner, our collaborations are powerful.

7. What are you working on right now?

Vicki: We are in the works of having another label baby so are hard working on getting that up and running. We're also working on the Summer09/10 collections for myPetsQuare and sQ, which is super exciting. And of course, finishing up the production of winter08, which entails an intense quality control system. I dream about quality control, its sad.

8. Where will SQ be stocked?

Angelique: We have picked up stockists all over Australia! More to the point, "where aren't we stocked!" ahahahhaha!!!

P.S New MPS Winter collection online now at http://shop.mypetsquare.com/

Photo by Olivia Lamotte for A New Muse