Aussie Lorna Jane is Expanding in California
Lorna Jane Clarkson had the chance to cash out her fashionable fitness clothing company of 120 stores in Australia. Clarkson said she passed, “I hope it doesn’t sound cliche. I really want to inspire women.” The founder was in Los Angeles to meet customers of her first stores in the U.S. and spread the “Move Nourish Believe” brand ethos.
As an aerobics instructor, Clarkson started her company 21 years ago stemming from her own personal desire for fashionable workout clothes. This year she has opened three stores in California (Malibu, Marina Del Rey and Santa Monica Place) as an introduction into the American market. (See related stories here and here.)
“I’ve earned all the money I need to earn. I choose to go to work everyday because I like the feeling of doing this,” said Clarkson, who pumps out 70-100 new styles per month. “People say, ’How do you come up with so many new ideas?’ It just comes naturally. I see things and I see an activewear top in it.”
But what really has her customer’s addicted to the Lorna Jane elixer is its sister website, MoveNourishBelieve.com. The site is a full lifestyle guide to healthy eating, exercise and positive, motivational thinking. To spread the word here, Clarkson sent three employees from Australia to live in California and establish the company’s neighborhood community culture in the stateside stores. (At 120 stores, there's one in every neighborhood throughout Australia.)
“Everybody likes to go to their local coffee shop and they know your name and they know your coffee, so we try to make people feel like that when they go into a Lorna Jane store.”
The first edition of its Fit Fashion Edit lookbook lays out the whole Lorna Jane brand culture of stylish fitness clothing and healthy living in a magazine format.
