Vanja Stace – Fashion blog » 5 minutes with: Gabrielle and Shannon from Tom Gunn

5 minutes with: Gabrielle and Shannon from Tom Gunn

March 15, 2010 in Brisbane, Fashion, Inspiration, Labels, Trends

I love Brisbane. And I love Brisbane fashion. In a country that is so focused on Sydney and Melbourne and what the designers are working on over there, Brisbane often gets forgotten. Brisbanites are just as guilty as the rest of them, traveling to Melbourne for shopping on a regular basis.

But did you know that we have a plethora of talent right here? You didn’t? Well allow me to start you off with the best of the best – footwear label Tom Gunn.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do

Tom Gunn is our namesake, Gabrielle Thompson is the ‘tom’ and Shannon Gunn is the ‘gunn’. We are a high end ladies footwear label. We design our shoes in Australia and they are made in Italy using beautiful leathers from the top Italian tanneries.

2. When did you go out on your own / when did you launch your label?

We really weren’t happy with what was available in Australian footwear. Australia had fantastic young clothing designers but nothing in terms of original footwear designers at the time we decided to start. So we left our footwear jobs in Australia and moved to Italy to start the business.

That was in 2007; we persisted and didn’t come back until we had a manufacturing base and our first range. We have a great factory in Italy who handcraft each pair of shoes and are great to work with.

3. What made you choose this direction and what inspired you to make fashion design a career?

We have both always been passionate about fashion from as far as we can remember! This led both of us to study Fashion Design at Moreton Institute of TAFE (now MSIT), although at the time did not know each other.

We met at our first footwear jobs in the same company – both starting within a week of each other, were we worked for over five years before going out with our own label. During these five years working together we both studied at Ars Arpel School in Milan (at separate times), which is one of the most famous footwear schools in the world. Living in Milan is an amazing experience and we love to go back whenever we get the chance.

4. What did you do before that?

Before starting our label we worked for a large Australian company designing footwear for five years and ‘learning the ropes’ of the footwear industry. This was an amazing experience and cemented our passion for footwear!

5. Tell us about your design process, how do you like to work?

Colour is always the base for our collections, interwoven with a story about a place or a time; it always seems a great starting point for us and really kicks off our creative process every season.We usually put together an inspiration board with pictures we’ve been collecting and lots of colour swatches and then we play with this until it feels right. We then design together and bounce ideas off each other until we are both 100% happy with what we have created.After we have designed the collection we start making the paper patterns for each shoe. This is the final step in the design process as this is where the lines and proportions are perfected.

6. How would you describe your style?

We love simple designs with unique detailing and beautiful textured leathers. Our design signature is bright splashes of contrasting colours and always the most exquisite leathers we can find. We aim to make each shoe special so that the wearer may feel beautiful!

7. What or who inspires you? Whose style or work do you admire and why?

We are inspired by different things each season. It could be a book one of us has read or an old photo. In terms of other designers, we really love what Consuela Castiglioni does for Marni each season and Dries Van Noten – both use colour and pattern so well and their collections are always inspiring.

8. If you were to collaborate with another designer (or artist), who would it be and why?

We both absolutely love an Australian artist called Dale Frank. He’s famous for his swirling abstract paintings in beautiful colours. I can just imagine the fun we’d have playing with colours!

9. How would you describe the Brisbane creative scene / is Brisbane supportive of your work?

Brisbane has a fantastic groundswell of designers, artists, photographers, stylists etc who are excelling in their fields nationally and internationally and it’s very inspiring.Brisbane is an exciting place to be with the way it’s growing and the opportunities that are opening up. We have found Brisbane to be very supportive of us!

10. What would you like to see Brisbane do better / what would you like more of?

We would like to see more fashion events in Brisbane and well as more support of local boutiques and designers. Brisbane has some fantastic boutiques and we need more to make our city a fashion destination!

11. Favourite piece that you own? Who is it by and why is it your favourite?

We both treasure our designer shoe collections. They have been collected over years of travelling the world! For Gabrielle it’s probably a pair of Dries Van Noten shoes from Florence and for Shannon a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s from New York. They aren’t worn anymore now that we only wear Tom Gunn shoes but they will always be treasured!

12. Do you have a saying or a motto that you go by?

“Aim for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the sky.” – Reinhold Niebuhr

We love stars!!

13. Finish this sentence – Creativity is important because…

Creativity is important because nothing new can be conceived without it!

4. What are you working on next?

We are designing our new Winter 2011 collection which we are working on showing in Paris!

And here is the Winter 2010 collection, enjoy!