We sat down with Shari, the founder and director of Ziggy and the Sun for a quick chat.
What three words describe your style?
Oversized, comfortable, timeless
Take us through your career journey.
I joined the workforce when I was really young, around 14, at a bakery (my mum had to sign a note to give me permission!) I was always really driven and loved working. I went on to become a qualified hairdresser, which I did alongside my bakery job as well as working at a local gift-store. I worked 7 days a week but I was happy to do this because it meant that I was able to travel and buy my first home when I was 21. My first business and sales role was at a luxury candle company, as a sales rep managing wholesale accounts. This job gave me the confidence to open up my very own clothing boutique in Williamstown when I was 24. Opening the boutique was a massive risk at the time- I quit my job and sold my car to start the business and I still had a mortgage to pay. Thankfully this risk paid off and is what led to me begin Ziggy and the Sun.
What was your inspiration for starting Ziggy and the Sun?
I’ve always been creative and interested in fashion as a form of self expression. After owning a clothing boutique, I began to toy with the idea of starting my own label. The circumstances of the 2020 COVID-19 Melbourne lockdowns is what propelled this goal forward, as it gave me extra time to invest in this start-up. I was pregnant at the time and struggled to find comfortable clothing that wasn’t specifically ‘maternity’. I didn’t want to buy clothes that I would only wear for 9 months, I wanted timeless clothing that would evolve with me. Clothing that I would be able to wear with my growing bump, but would also carry through post pregnancy and when breastfeeding. This is where Ziggy and the Suns signature oversized silhouettes, and functional draw-strings and buttons stem from.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Anywhere warm and by the beach.
Tell us a wild story.
After we brought our home, we noticed that there was a ‘sinkage’ in our back lawn. We investigated and realised that there was previously a pool there, which the last owners had filled up with random junk and covered over. So, we dug everything up and restored it as a pool!
