While Alex Perry has built one of the most well-known international Australian brands that has expanded into multiple department stores worldwide, there was still a time he didn’t consider himself “cool enough” for the Australian market.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Perry opened up about his struggles assimilating into his own local market right here in Australia.
“As it turns out, nobody wanted it (my clothes) here,” Perry said.
“It didn’t work in Myer. It didn’t work in DJs, and I kept thinking, what is wrong with my clothes? It just wasn’t right for Australia.”
“I was never the one to watch, or the cool one, it was always all about these other designers. But I kept thinking, ‘I make really good clothes and I think they are really beautiful’.
“So I started to look at what I was doing and I thought ‘you know what, I think I am pretty cool’, but it is in a glamorous way, not what cool is defined as here.”
The renowned designer also mentioned that he was reluctant to open up his designs to the international market in 2000, following all these struggles in Australia.
As one of our most popular international designers, Perry is now carried by more than 280 upscale independent and department stores worldwide.
“We are in every single luxury department store in the world that I have ever wanted to be stocked in,” he said.
“Bergdorf’s, Neiman Marcus, Selfridges, Browns. I thought it was impossible 15 years ago.
Perry is now dressing some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry, which is a far cry from his first big celebrity, which was Noni Hazelhurst for the Logies.
From Heidi Klum to Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian to name a few, a proud moment for the designer was undoubtedly seeing Lady Gaga on the cover of Variety Magazine in one of his pieces.
But he doesn’t let that stop him from working harder and harder.
“I will be on the couch watching Netflix in my pyjamas and something will pop up and we will see Lady Gaga in Alex Perry,” he said.
“I still get a buzz from it. I do for a minute. I don’t hang onto it. I see it and I get really proud and everyone at work loves it. Then it goes away.
“I feel like a superstar for the day, then I wait for the next one.”
Source: Daily Telegraph
