Bethany Jakob from Bethany Alice Fashion Design on the joys of alterations and collaborating with Lois Hazel | Episode 6

Bethany Jakob is the designer behind Bethany Alice Fashion Design, and in this episode we are chatting about her collaboration with Lois Hazel. Having trained in fashion design at RMIT and after working in bridal for a few years, Bethany was shocked by how women expected their bodies to fit their clothes, not the other way around. She started offering alterations to friends and family around 6 years ago to help them feel confident in their wardrobe and her business grew from there.  She now travels around Victoria meeting with clients and offering alterations packages to transform their wardrobes. As well as alterations, she creates upcycled styles to help inspire her clients to see the potential for their unworn clothes. After connecting with Lois Hazel, a local Melbourne brand, the two worked together to transform Lois’s unsold stock through adding panels to create voluminous sleeves and adjusting the design to enable reversibility.

We start by talking about her journey into doing alterations, and the early stages of her work with Lois, from the first meeting, to how they worked together to design the project. Next Bethany dives into the nitty gritty around the materials and processes involved, as well as how she structured the financial side. We then talk about trust and what makes people attractive to work with before wrapping up with what drives her to keep going, from both a big picture perspective and her daily motivations.

About the Research:

This podcast is part of my (Julia English’s) PhD research at RMIT University. Please note, engagement with this podcast (for example, reviews) will be included in the research. If you wish your engagement to be excluded, please email me (Julia.english@student.rmit.edu.au). Your engagement helps me understand whether sharing interviews in this way is helpful and assists my research in identifying if this knowledge is of value to the local industry. You can find more information on my Instagram including an FAQ section, as I am also using feedback through my social media channels.

My research is looking into how people like Bethany are working together to do these types of projects, where waste is being remade into new things. The way that I am finding out more about these types of projects is through interviews, and that is what you are listening to on the podcast. As noted in the recording, these are edited to create a smooth sounding podcast and some parts of the interview may have been excluded if not suitable for public sharing, or if the interview was overly long.

This research project has had ethics approval through RMIT University (2021-24506-15223).

Links & Contact Info:

For Bethany’s website: https://www.bethanyalice.com.au/

Instagram: bethanyalice_fashiondesign

Keen to connect with me?

Instagram: _julia.english_

Email: Julia.english@student.rmit.edu.au

 

Credits:

Music by Frank Henry, with thanks.

This PhD research is funded by an Australian Research Training Program Scholarship.

 

Transcripts & Citation:

For access to both pdf and text files of transcripts, head over here: https://doi.org/10.25439/rmt.19380890

Please cite as:

English, Julia (2022): Bethany Jakob from Bethany Alice Fashion Design on the joys of alterations and collaborating with Lois Hazel | Episode 6 | Seam Change Podcast. RMIT University. Media. https://doi.org/10.25439/rmt.19380890