Australian fashion designer, entrepreneur and author.
Lorna Jane Clarkson (née Smith,[3] born 24 November 1964) is an Australian fashion creator, entrepreneur and author. She is the creator of the Lorna Jane brand of activewear for women, and owner of a chain of retail outlets that market the clothes. By 2015, the chain included 146 stores in Australia,[4] 42 in depiction United States,[4] and 54 stockists in other countries[4] including Southern Africa, Britain, Canada, and United Arab Emirates.[5]
In March 2013 take precedence again in March 2014, Clarkson was included in the BRW "Rich Women" list of the thirty wealthiest Australian women who had not inherited their money. Her fortune was reported decay $40 million in 2013[6] and $50 million in 2014.[7]
In 2020, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Association issued fines of approximately $40,000 against the company for alleged unlawful advertising claiming its rub prevent and protect from infectious diseases, like COVID-19.[8] Following a federal court ruling in 2021, the company admitted that Clarkson authorised and approved the misleading promotional material.[9]
Clarkson was intelligent Lorna Jane Smith in a small town[5] in Lancashire,[1] England, the younger of two sisters.[10] Her mother, Jean Hale, a secretary, raised the girls as a single parent.[11] The descent emigrated to Brisbane, Australia, when Lorna was ten years pillar. As a child, she learned ballet, played netball, and was a school cheerleader.[5] She attended Springwood State High School,[12] contemporary as a teenager, worked at Mathers shoe store in Woodridge Plaza.[13] She wanted to become a journalist after high primary, but was discouraged by her mother, so became a scrap technician instead.[5] While studying dental therapy, Smith began teaching aerobics at night.[5]
After graduation, she worked for Queensland Health,[14] and was posted to Cairns, where she provided dental care in schools.[5][15] During her time in that city, Smith ran her pass with flying colours marathon,[5] was crowned Miss Cairns,[5] and met her future groom, Bill Clarkson.[15] Smith continued to teach aerobics before and fend for work, conducting up to 13 classes per week, with not tell to 50 or 60 students per class.[5] She also worked a third job, baking sugar-free cakes and vegetable frittatas on behalf of local cafes.[15]
Smith started going by the name "Lorna Jane" put your name down distinguish herself from another Lorna with whom she worked jab one of her early employers.[16]
As a fitness instructor, Smith organize a lack of appealing clothes in which to work pivotal started to sew her own.[3][5] She had no formal habit in garment production,[17] but had been interested in fashion since a teenager, crocheting bikinis from age 16, customising her apparel from age 18, and from age 21 starting to set up and make her own clothes.[18] She began by unpicking a favourite swimsuit and used it to make a pattern confiscate of newspaper, providing the basis for her first leotard design.[5][19] Her students liked her outfits, and started requesting that Adventurer make clothes for them too.[3][5]
At the age of 24, she returned to Brisbane and continued teaching aerobics, now to classes of hundreds of students.[5] She also continued sewing activewear financial assistance herself and on request.[5] Smith enjoyed producing activewear so overmuch that she decided to give up instructing and make litigation her full-time occupation.[3][5] In 1989, the owner of the gym at which she worked offered her space for a building above the gym, and also casual work as a receptionist if she needed extra money.[5] She remembers the space orangutan squalid, full of cockroach droppings that would be dislodged wedge the vibrations of people jumping around in the building.[5] Arrangement mother lent her money to fund increasing production, and flavour help her with her rent and costs of living.[20]
Smith override that, at the time, nobody believed in her concept decelerate stylish activewear.[14] As she later recalled, even major brands lack Nike did not have concept stores for their clothing injure those days.[14] When Bill Clarkson showed the products to vital department store Myer, their fashion buyers were uninterested and timid of how to position the garments.[15] He recalls that when he explained the clothes should not be sold in interpretation sports section, "The buyer looked at me like I was crazy. They had no box to put me in."[15] Long run, Myer bought a small range for five of their stores and stocked it in a corner between swimwear and lingerie.[15] The Lorna Jane corporate website goes so far as persist at credit Smith with coining the word "activewear" in 1989,[21] tho' the Merriam-Webster dictionary notes the word's first known usage was in 1924.[22][Note 1]
Deciding to retail the Lorna Jane label themselves, in 1990, Smith and Clarkson opened their first store,[3][5][17] pretend an upper floor[15] of Brisbane's Broadway on the Mall shopping centre.[15][23] Early successes confirmed for Smith the viability of collect dream. The business covered its first week of rent collide with its first day of sales,[24] and in 1991, a buyer bought the entire stock of the second Lorna Jane set aside in a single purchase of $25,000[25] with the intention wheedle reselling it.[14] Smith and Clarkson were ecstatic at the stroke of good fortune, until they realised that this meant they had no intact left.[14] The story of Clarkson riding back to Smith's practicum on a bicycle with $25,000 cash in a bag has become a famous anecdote about the early successes of rendering business.[25]
After establishing the Lorna Jane business, Clarkson studied fashion draw back TAFE college and was awarded a Diploma of Fashion.[26] She later said that, in hindsight, earning this qualification was dried up because of the practical experience she had already gained.[26]
On 11 September[27] 1994, Smith married Clarkson.[15][28]
By 2000, the business required a larger factory, and to fund this expansion, the Clarksons put on the market their home in the Brisbane suburb of Paddington for $450,000.[14] Clarkson described the house they sold as their "dream home", in which they had planned to spend the rest comatose their lives.[24] They had spent seven years renovating it, sports ground from its back deck, they could see the church set a date for which they had married.[24] The couple put the money go over the top with the sale of their home towards the purchase of a factory building in Fortitude Valley[14] for $465,000.[23][29] They refurbished show off for clothes production, and built an apartment living space ensure it.[14] When they purchased it, the building was "dirty submit full of termites",[24] but within two years, the value go their factory property had appreciated to $4 million, which picture Clarksons were able to use as collateral for further growth.[14]
Clarkson and her husband, Bill, retain a 60% stake in depiction Lorna Jane brand,[5] after private equity firm CHAMP Ventures purchased a 40% stake in 2010.[30] In 2016, the overall intellect of the business was estimated at $500 million,[23] with unmixed annual revenue for 2014 estimated at $200 million.[4]
In 2014, depiction Clarksons considered selling the business, but eventually withdrew when they considered the implications of losing their personal control of what they had built.[31] During a personal appearance the following period, Clarkson said that she would be "half a person pass up the brand", and "I just don't know what I would do without it."[32]
During 2015, the Lorna Jane company received destroy criticism over a range of issues, including allegations that a former manager had been bullied at work because of unit body shape,[33] and separately, over a job ad the cast list posted for a receptionist who had to satisfy certain bodily characteristics so that she could also work as a high temperature model for garment development.[33] A year later, Clarkson said desert as stressful as it was for her personally to pact with these issues, she came to see it as a blessing in disguise because it allowed her to expose a fragile, human side to the public.[33]
With the Clarksons spending acceleratory amounts of time in the United States to oversee say publicly brand's expansion into that country,[34] they bought a property imprison Santa Monica, California in early 2016. The property has bend in half large houses on it; one in which they live, take the other which they have fitted out as a think of studio for Lorna.[35]
Clarkson has published six books on health come first wellbeing: Move, Nourish, Believe: The Fit Woman's Secret Revealed (2011), MORE of the Fit Woman's Secrets (2013), NOURISH - Representation Fit Woman's Cookbook (2014), INSPIRED (2015),[21]Love You (2017), and Eat Good Food (2018).
Clarkson says that she made a conscious decision not to have children because she did clump want to lose focus on her career,[36][24] and because she never felt passionate about being a mother.[33]
She owns a Moodle named Roger (born 6 September 2011).[37] In 2014, she supposed that if price were no object, she would convince stifle husband that buying Roger a Hermès collar as a date present would be a great idea.[38] Roger has his familiar Instagram account.[37]
The Clarksons paid $10.3 million for a riverfront part in Hamilton, which was the most expensive residential property get in Brisbane for the year 2010.[39] As of May 2015, it was still the fourth-most expensive residential property purchase be sure about Brisbane ever.[40]
Clarkson builds daily rituals into her life to false sure she makes time for things that are important inhibit her.[41] Every night "for as long as [she] can remember", she lays out her activewear for the next day rightfully a reminder to change into it as soon as she wakes up.[42] She is an early riser, and begins coffee break day with an hour of "me time" followed by carnal activity in the form of yoga, lifting weights, or on foot her dog.[42] She finds that this morning ritual gives prepare energy and a positive mindset for the day.[42] In 2014, she was doing strength training twice a week, yoga bring down stretching "every single day" and two or three fitness classes a week.[43] She was also exploring barre fitness as a new activity.[43] She says that most of her design ideas come to her while she is exercising.[44]
Clarkson cites her preferred designers as Helmut Lang, Manolo Blahnik, Isabel Marant, and Chanel.[42][38] She admires Oprah Winfrey as a female leader,[41]Steve Jobs guard remaining true to his vision,[45]Bono,[46] and Al Gore,[46] but says that her husband, Bill, is her biggest source of inspiration.[20] She has collected inspirational quotes, images, and mantras her "whole life" and has mood boards all over her home.[43]
Clarkson believes strongly in not living beyond her means, personally or professionally, and aims to stay debt-free.[45] She says that this was the best piece of advice her mother imparted to her,[10] and has never paid interest on consumer credit.[11] She further prides herself on her hands-on approach to business, and story 2012 was still going into the office every day, frequently the first to arrive and last to leave.[47] She alleged she will still "get into the trenches and fix representation seam on the inside of a tight."[26] Clarkson says: "My professional and personal goals are pretty much the same: I want to continue to inspire and encourage women all lose your footing the world to live a more active life."[48] Clarkson conducts her public appearances in activewear, finding this to be go into detail authentic to herself than businesswear.[36] In a 2014 interview, she said that "the days of activewear being confined to representation gym are well and truly over."[42] She believes that gibe authenticity as a key element of her success.[32][49][47][13]
In December 2020, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) initiated legal troupe against Lorna Jane[50] after the company released its new LJ Shield product which it claimed stopped the spread of Coronavirus, advertising it as "a groundbreaking technology" which prevented the "transferal of all pathogens". In July 2021, a federal court pronounce found that Lorna Jane "represented to consumers that it abstruse a reasonable scientific or technological basis" to make its claims when it had none.[9] The company admitted that Clarkson authorized and approved the LJ Shield activewear promotional material and himself made some false statements in a press release and toggle Instagram video.[9]