One P Design Co-Founders Hayley Clarke and Karen Platt grew up with very different views on fashion.
While Hayley would spend hours carefully browsing the racks to finesse her personal style, Karen made outfit choices based on practicality and functionality.
After a successful career in marketing, Hayley decided to pursue her dreams and at age 40, enrolled at the Whitehouse Institute of Design.
Meanwhile, Karen had taken her psychology learnings into the corporate world, dealing in everything from customer experience and innovation to marketing, sales and product development.
As dress code in the corporate world began to shift, the former colleagues bonded over the shared frustration of deciding what to wear to work each day.
Through conversations with other women, they also discovered that the abundance of overpriced, poor-quality synthetic garments on the market was another factor frustrating professional women.
They didn’t feel the fashion industry was listening and instead designing for trends that change rapidly and clothes that don’t fit all body types.
Motivated by their desire to fill this crucial market gap, in January 2018 the pair combined their diverse experiences and established One P Design.
“Our research indicated that on average, women spend around 1% of their day – or 16 minutes – choosing what to wear,” Karen explains. “That’s 80 minutes a week.”
They created a set of stylish basics that meet the demands of the modern woman, reduce decision-making each morning, and – unlike fast fashion – don’t impact the environment in the process.
The 5-day wardrobe
Believing that women have more important things to do with their time than worry about what to wear, Hayley and Karen developed the 5-day wardrobe approach.
Customers simply select a pant, skirt, dress, shirt and top and they have a personal work uniform for under A$800.
“Unlike men, women are trained to think that we need to wear something different to every social outing, and it’s just not the case,” Karen explains.
“We wanted to create these classic styles so that women could create a wardrobe that’s not driven by constantly changing fast-fashion trends.”
There’s even a mix and match tool that lets women visually build their outfits across the entire One P collection – giving women back 16 minutes every morning.
At present, there is no data on the changing dimensions of a woman’s body to inform clothing design, resulting in challenges for customers, designers and retailers.
Through its ‘Measured for Change’ campaign, One P gives customers the option to submit the body measurements of women in their life aged between 20 and 70 years old.
These submissions will help create a new set of measurements that reflects the variation of women’s bodies as they age.
Naturally and sustainably made
Since launching, One P Design has upheld its commitment to sustainable and ethical practices all the way from the selection of fibres to textile traceability, production and manufacturing.
Designed and made in Australia, garments are made using high-quality natural fibres like merino wool, Tencel, linen and organic cotton – and everything is machine washable to save time and money.
“We’ve been on market for about 14 months and we’re finding that the further we go, the harder it is to fulfil our sustainable ambitions.
“It is so easy for women to get sucked back into fast-fashion antics – it’s cheaper and usually more accessible. We’re very conscious of that consumer behaviour, but it’s not an easy thing to change,” says Karen.
“Looking at some of the top-end brands, you can fork out about $700 on a pair of acrylic machine-washable pants – but they’re just not comfortable to wear.
“We’ve worked really hard to make these beautifully-designed clothes made from natural fibres because we know that once women experience the difference, they won’t want to go back.”
Demonstrating a sustainable end-to-end supply chain, all purchases are sent out in The Better Packaging Co biodegradable plastic-free postage bags, which contain zero toxic residues and are completely compostable.
One P Design will donate $1 per order to Gidget Foundation Australia, a non-profit that promotes emotional wellbeing for expectant and new parents and to raise awareness of perinatal depression and anxiety.
