A British-based brand, Arlette Lee works exclusively with the supreme natural fibre Alpaca, advocating the exceptional artisanship of the Andes – bringing a piece of nature closer to home.

All garments are made in Peru using organic, certified and fair-trade baby alpaca, with full respect of the environment, people and alpacas.

They work with alpaca which is a supreme 100% natural fibre — sustainable, renewable, biodegradable and ethical.

They encourage ethical consumption by offering high-quality, stylish garments handcrafted by artisans designed for contemporary life on the move.
Arlette Lee is animal friendly and no alpacas are harmed.

All knitwear offers a functional and elegant wardrobe staple for contemporary life on the move – designed to wear from day to night and throughout the seasons. Exclusively made from 100% Alpaca, 100% Baby Alpaca.

‘Quality is key in life’.

I was born and brought up in PNG – Papua New Guinea, in a remote village in the Eastern and Western highlands.

We had no electricity, no running water, no gas for cooking. We relied on log fires for cooking, river water for drinking and washing, and hurricane lamps for our lighting.

I was brought up for my first 18 years on a coffee and tea plantation and brought up by the local villagers. I spoke ‘tok pisin‘ before I spoke english. I believe this is where my passion for third world countries stems from, having lived and been brought up in what was possibly the last frontier on earth.

Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. According to Wikipedia, 841 different languages are listed for the country. These are not dialects, these are languages.

The world’s most diverse bird life can also be found in PNG with a large percentage only ever seen in New Guinea.

It is home to one of the last great expanses of tropical rain forests as well as some of the world’s most traditional forest dwellers, some of whom have had little or no contact with the outside world. Only 18 percent of its people live in urban centres.

Yet rainforests are being logged and cleared at a rapid rate due to the timber, mining and palm oil industries. Between 1972 and 2002 PNG lost more than 5 million hectares of forests to the multinationals.

I read an article recently where a Malaysian nickel mining company has paid off the local police in Papua to ‘get rid’ of the local land owners who are trying to protect their precious rain forest and home. The way of getting rid of them is to lock them up in shipping crates!

This is only one instance of only one industry. There are many more currently in the process of pillaging the country – gold, nickel,oil, gas…. I could go on because the natural resources are plentiful in PNG.

The problem here is that we have one of the worlds richest countries in natural minerals and energies that the world wants, but one of the poorest people in the world. And it is on our doorstep, yet so many Australians know nothing of this magnificent land with its most fascinating primitive and tribal cultures.

This is the first of many of blogs I will be writing on my precious PNG.

This is what is happening on our doorstep.

two weeks after our first Trade Show…

still following up our contacts from Decoration+Design!

Three days of exhaustion, but fun; sore feet, but stimulating conversations.

Three days of scribbling notes and taking cards and shaking hands with serious buyers.

Why hadn’t I done this before?

My friend Joy Godley suggested that my soft furnishings label Cascada Eco Textiles should share a stand with her gorgeous artwork of Wall Candy at Decoration+Design (only 10 days in advance of the show opening). I wondered how we could possibly organise things in this time! Not to mention afford it, et al.

It’s truly amazing what can be achieved when you’re under that kind of pressure.

D-Day (or I could say D+D-Day, but it would end up looking like a maths equation!) approached all too quickly.

But Milana and I (as well as the help of my amazing and well-trained partner) managing to achieve what I would have thought the impossible.

In the leadup to the bump-in, I had a picture in my mind how I was going to display everything, not thinking for a moment whether it would all fit. Somehow it all did. And beautifully!

With bits of furniture taken from the office, a poster with our show message “Tomorrow’s Cashmere” as designed by Tim, our fabulous graphics wizz at Biaccident, a rug to give the whole space a feeling of luxury, we then filled it with our gorgeous new 2013 collection……

Voila…… it came together perfectly. We even had a very special visitor on one of the days…

None other than the gorgeous and vibrant Rebecca Gibney, all rugged up in our brand new Organic Pima Cotton Luis baby blanket, that also doubles as a beautiful wrap (as demonstrated by the lovely Ms Gibney above).

I was thinking this would just be a branding exercise. A chance to get the Cascada name out into the interior design market.

How wrong can a girl be?

The interest was astounding.

I have realised that designers have a much greater appreciation for a unique product (blankets, throws, baby items, accessories, and the like) and label than retailers do. Why is this?…

So here I am, still trying to catch up with all those leads and at the same time shipping all of those great orders out.

I have loved this time connecting to my ‘brand ambassadors’ in the retail world, developing new relationships and seeing their genuine delight and understanding of what my Cascada label stands for.

Next stop……….. watch this space. See the Cascada Stockist page for all of the new additions.

The discerning consumer will find luxurious perfumes (liquid or balm), candles, lip balms, mists and face creams. They also provide bespoke work and gift sets.

Every product listed on their online store is:

• - Ethically sourced
• - 100% Australian made and owned
• - Made with Natural and organic ingredients
• - Cruelty free – not tested on animals
• - Organic / Certified Organic / Natural
• - Eco Friendly

In addition, they  proudly support locally made goods and advocate Australian small business.