Stuff by Glad’s fifth collection launch will be held at Goodwood’s Kiki Studio this Sunday, and fashion lovers can expect maker Isabella McRae’s most creative range yet.
Isabella McRae, owner of local leather goods brand Stuff by Glad, was inspired by her father to create her own handmade label in 2019 because of his creative impact on her early years.
“I’ve always been around him making stuff. When I was a kid, it wasn’t my mum who taught me to sew, it was my dad. He’s a pretty creative guy,” Bella says.
“I turned to my father, who has Leatherworks Adelaide, so I had quite a few years working with him developing my own design levels.”
Bella is releasing her fifth collection of Stuff by Glad, and it is her most experimental yet.
“This is sort of a combination of five years of learning and experimenting and playing with design,” she says.
“There [was] a bit of a blockage there for a few years where I could make nice, beautiful, well-made things, but I couldn’t really execute concepts that I had because I wasn’t quite there yet and now, I feel like I can push things.
“You can definitely see the growth from the shapes and the forms that I’ve used over the past few years and this is really quite different to what I’ve done in the past.”
Isabella McRae
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This new collection includes modern shapes with three new, bold colours: The Jan Bag and Squish Mini (both pictured in the slider above), the Teddy Tote, the Wavy Handbag, the Wavy Wallet, zip wallet, sunglasses case and a key fob.
“I’ve always tried to experiment with colours. But this season has definitely taken a different turn in terms of the form,” Bella says. “Everything’s a bit more slouchy… a few new ways of doing things really.
“I think it aligns more with my personal style as well.”
This Sunday, Bella will be hosting a launch event at Kiki Studio to commemorate Stuff by Glad’s fifth collection.
“That’s where I come in!” studio owner Eleni Criss says with a friendly charm. “The theme is going to be a little market: nice and bright, super fun.”
“Parley [Wine] and Bridge Road [Brewers] will supply all of our drinks for us, which is amazing… and people are just welcome to run through, and check out the collection.”
Bella says it is an accessible and really relaxed space.
“Hopefully we see some new people come in. I never want to be doing something that doesn’t feel like people can join in on,” Bella says.
The Jan Bag in deep blue
Kiki Studio was formed as an event pop-up space for Adelaide creatives to showcase their brands and ideas less than six months ago.
“It’s a multidisciplinary space,” Eleni says.
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“It will just be really nice if people can have some different options rather than just an art gallery — they have their time and their place, but it’s nice to have something in the neighbourhood that you can jump past for a while and it’s just a bit more approachable.”
As Eleni also practises her creative form hairdressing out of the space, she reiterates she wants Kiki’s to be inclusive and to promote Adelaide culture into the suburbs.
“I don’t want Kiki’s to be too exclusive,” Eleni says.
“It’s great to network and it’s great to have a niche, but it’s important to make sure that you have time for different types of artists — there’s so many different art forms and creatives and makers.”
Bella says there’s a new guard of people doing so many cool projects in Adelaide.
“Not to sound ageist or anything, but it’s definitely a generational thing. I feel like there’s a big shift at the moment where I feel like there are less people that are leaving and going to Melbourne and Sydney than there were maybe five years ago,” she says.
Bella and Eleni, blinded by the light
Bella and Eleni both agree that creative people, especially women, should support one another and have showcased this through their upcoming event collaboration.
“It’s nice to meet someone else who is a creative and be able to uplift each other rather than be in competition,” Eleni says. “It’s really nice to come on board and be exited for each other.”
“We definitely need to be doing that more,” Bella agrees.
Kiki Studio is located at 89D Goodwood Road, Goodwood. For event info, head to the website.
Connect with Stuff by Glad and Kiki Studio on Instagram for more.
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