When the Herald phones Kristy Lawrence, she's relaxing at the family holiday home on the Margaret River outside Perth.
''I'm standing on the balcony and it's so blue,'' she says through the fuzzy reception that often beleaguers beach houses. ''There is that sparkle on the water and we've been at the beach and visiting friends for the past five days, just hanging out before the back-to-school term.''
The white-walled Gracetown weekender is a serendipitous location for our conversation.
Lawrence, who is behind the Perth fashion label Flannel, says: ''The goal of every piece I design is to make the wearer feel as if they are on holiday.''
But with so many other brands citing ''resort glamour'', ''French Riviera style'' and the like as similar creative references, what exactly does that mean?
Inspiration can be a difficult thing to pin down, so it's no wonder Lawrence invokes somewhat of a fashion cliche in her answer, citing an ''effortless, luxury lifestyle where creative people live, work and play'' as what she is trying to encapsulate with her fashion collections.
But the best answer lies in the clothes themselves. Unlike other fashion brands driven predominantly by trends and newness, Flannel garments whisper rather than shout. Rendered in a largely muted colour palette in natural fibres such as silk, wool and cotton, Lawrence's designs tend to classic silhouettes that are both comfortable and sophisticated. They are indeed the kind of understated, relaxed pieces one would wear on holiday but plenty of women are wearing them year-round. Since Lawrence founded Flannel in 2009, the brand has grown from a small concern in Perth to incorporate four stand-alone stores around Australia, 28 stockists in Australia including David Jones and 18 in the US, where the label is available in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Texas.
Lawrence is flying to the US this month, where she is considering opening a store in New York or Los Angeles and showing at New York Fashion Week in September. She will also meet the Los Angeles agency The SYDNY, which represents Flannel in the US. ''This is our fourth season [with Flannel] with much success,'' The SYDNY's Elizabeth Hehir says. ''The collection fits very well with the luxury lifestyle boutiques with whom we work.''
Lawrence will then return to Australia where Flannel has just signed a lease for a new store in Subiaco and plans to open three more - in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney - within the next year.
As other brands have foundered as a result of the economic downturn, Flannel has increased its sales year-on-year. ''We've been hearing so many people saying how horrible everything is going at the moment but every season we are up, which in this environment is very affirming.''
But Lawrence initially had her doubts when her Sydney PR agency Little Hero asked her to stage Flannel's first solo show in 2010 as part of Australian Fashion Week. Although she had founded Flannel only one year earlier, Lawrence was no fashion industry novice. For a decade she ran the Perth label Empire Rose, but sold it in 2006 to spend more time with her husband and three children, and because her heart was no longer in it.
''[Empire Rose] was very layered and there was a lot more to it; I'd lost the desire to dress like that myself,'' she says. ''I wanted to be much more simple in my lifestyle and the way I dressed.''
Flannel was born of that motivation but Lawrence was worried it was too understated to stand out on the runway. ''I wasn't going to do it because I didn't feel my clothing was in that high-fashion realm,'' she says.
Flannel may indeed have got lost in the wash of nine shows a day during AFW but media and buyers turned up out of curiosity due to the high profile of Little Hero's other fashion clients, including Romance Was Born, Therese Rawsthorne and Seventh Wonderland.
The reaction from media and retailers was positive, with veteran Sydney retailer Belinda Seper describing Flannel as ''drenched with ease and simplicity'' and David Jones later picking up the brand for its key stores. ''The reception we've received has been really fantastic, the sell-through is unreal and it's really exciting,'' Lawrence says.
Flannel's new autumn-winter collection is named Paramour and takes inspiration from an imaginary scenario involving the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles.
''It's the woman that escaped at night from the Chateau Marmont in a beautiful coat with a slip underneath,'' Lawrence says. ''She was staying there and sneaking out for an affair.'' For her illicit liaisons, the Flannel woman will be wearing draped nude and blush silk dresses, buttery leather vests and patchwork shift dresses and boleros and jackets in midnight blue velvet. While making small concessions to changing tastes and styles - there are more maxi skirts and velvets in this collection, for example - with its muted colour palette and timeless silhouettes Paramour remains true to the founding principles of the brand.
''Everything [in fashion] is so bright at the moment but I'm not,'' Lawrence says. ''It's more about the simple slip that has been dyed to the most perfect chalky colour.
''We stick with what we believe in, which is very hard with the fashion industry because you want to go where the trends are going and with what other people are doing.''
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