Sarah-Jane Duff is a self-confessed cheerleader for the "fat girl", with the plus-size designer recently opening LaLA boutique in Auckland's Newton. Her high-end label, Lost and Led Astray, caters for women size 14 to 24. She spoke to Amy Nelmes Bissett about what she wishes the world would understand about overweight people and her treehouse dream.
I am plus size, but I hadn't really thought about doing plus size fashion until I was offered a job at The Carpenter's Daughter, a popular New Zealand fashion label by designer Caroline Marr. She offered me a job after I finished my fashion degree at Auckland University of Technology, and it changed my world. It changed the way I looked at my body and the way I look at other people's bodies.
I had to train myself to make patterns for plus-size; the proportions are different, and it makes the way you cut the design very tricky. It's definitely harder, and that's why there aren't that many amazing plus-size clothes. Plus-size design scares a lot of designers.
I decided to launch my own label Lost and Led Astray three years ago. I felt ready. I was lucky that, in my niche area of plus size, I was trusted in my designs. I was initially selling online and through ten stockists until three months ago, when I opened my first store on Karangahape Road in Newton, Auckland.
