A Festival Fashion Brand Designer Talks Inspiration And Balancing Her Business With Her Job At KPMG
Get Yourself Dressed officially launched in 2017. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Music festival season is here and some of the upcoming large festivals—such as Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas and Burning Man—are guaranteed to be full of fun, innovative and creative costumes.
If you’re still planning your outfit, Australian festival fashion brand Get Yourself Dressed is now shipping its playful designs to the United States.
The independent custom label prides itself on producing fashionable yet comfortable festival wear, with options including playsuits, hot pants, onesies and fanny packs. The concept was founded by Emma Baker in 2013 after she attended Rainbow Serpent Festival and was inspired by the outfits she saw.
“I was enchanted by the brightness, the color and the fun that the crowd was having,” she says. “It made my head just pop seeing all these different styles. My brain kicked into gear, and so I started working out how to construct and make these amazing creations.”
Emma Baker’s festival essentials are a fanny pack, her DSLR camera and her friends. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Emma Baker is working on launching an activewear business called GYD Active. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Baker began designing outfits for her friends, and as demand grew, she officially launched Get Yourself Dressed in 2017. She says her groovy designs are inspired by Australia’s peacock spider.
“The intensity of the colors on their backs is amazing and just too good to be true. It’s amazing how nature has this way of creating these colors, which are near impossible to replicate even with all the technology in the world,” she notes. “Anything that clashes or mish mashs brilliant colors all thrown together gets me every time.”
Baker has a history in design: She studied fashion in high school and made clothing for her friends in college while pursuing her business degree. She then went on to study fashion design at RMIT University in Melbourne for one year. She says she decided to expand her sales outside of Australia and New Zealand because the United States has a large and internationally acclaimed festival market. She notes that sales have increased in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Emma Baker’s top three music festivals are Rainbow Serpent Festival, Exit Festival and Glastonbury Festival. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
When Baker isn’t creating playful festival attire, she’s working as an associate director in human resources at KPMG. She manages to balance her full-time job with her fashion brand by working after hours, “squeezing in tasks” when possible and utilizing KPMG’s flexible work hours—she’s able to leave work early on Friday to set up a sales stand at a music festival and then work remotely the following Monday to get settled.
She adds that she used her skills from KPMG to launch Get Yourself Dressed.
“I don’t think I would have ever had the confidence to do this without the skills I’ve learned from KPMG,” Baker notes. “Being a management consultant is about project management and multitasking, as well as meeting deadlines and getting things done. This is exactly what it takes to start a business, especially when you are juggling another day job at the same time.”
Emma Baker’s tips for making a creative outfit include “more is more” and putting your own unique spin on a design. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Although it can be challenging to manage a business with a full-time job, Baker has been able to successfully combine her love of fashion and music festivals with her business skills.
“Starting a business is never easy, and there have been so many times that I get cold feet and think, ‘What have I done? I could have had a nice holiday or made a small down payment on my house loan with the money and time I have put into Get Yourself Dressed,’” Baker says. “I know, though, that this was the right thing for me to do, no matter how successful I am at the end of the day. I love creating things even if it is potentially at my own cost. Seeing how happy people are when they wear my outfits makes it all totally worth it.”
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Get Yourself Dressed officially launched in 2017. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Music festival season is here and some of the upcoming large festivals—such as Coachella, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas and Burning Man—are guaranteed to be full of fun, innovative and creative costumes.
If you’re still planning your outfit, Australian festival fashion brand Get Yourself Dressed is now shipping its playful designs to the United States.
The independent custom label prides itself on producing fashionable yet comfortable festival wear, with options including playsuits, hot pants, onesies and fanny packs. The concept was founded by Emma Baker in 2013 after she attended Rainbow Serpent Festival and was inspired by the outfits she saw.
“I was enchanted by the brightness, the color and the fun that the crowd was having,” she says. “It made my head just pop seeing all these different styles. My brain kicked into gear, and so I started working out how to construct and make these amazing creations.”
Emma Baker’s festival essentials are a fanny pack, her DSLR camera and her friends. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Emma Baker is working on launching an activewear business called GYD Active. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Baker began designing outfits for her friends, and as demand grew, she officially launched Get Yourself Dressed in 2017. She says her groovy designs are inspired by Australia’s peacock spider.
“The intensity of the colors on their backs is amazing and just too good to be true. It’s amazing how nature has this way of creating these colors, which are near impossible to replicate even with all the technology in the world,” she notes. “Anything that clashes or mish mashs brilliant colors all thrown together gets me every time.”
Baker has a history in design: She studied fashion in high school and made clothing for her friends in college while pursuing her business degree. She then went on to study fashion design at RMIT University in Melbourne for one year. She says she decided to expand her sales outside of Australia and New Zealand because the United States has a large and internationally acclaimed festival market. She notes that sales have increased in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Emma Baker’s top three music festivals are Rainbow Serpent Festival, Exit Festival and Glastonbury Festival. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
When Baker isn’t creating playful festival attire, she’s working as an associate director in human resources at KPMG. She manages to balance her full-time job with her fashion brand by working after hours, “squeezing in tasks” when possible and utilizing KPMG’s flexible work hours—she’s able to leave work early on Friday to set up a sales stand at a music festival and then work remotely the following Monday to get settled.
She adds that she used her skills from KPMG to launch Get Yourself Dressed.
“I don’t think I would have ever had the confidence to do this without the skills I’ve learned from KPMG,” Baker notes. “Being a management consultant is about project management and multitasking, as well as meeting deadlines and getting things done. This is exactly what it takes to start a business, especially when you are juggling another day job at the same time.”
Emma Baker’s tips for making a creative outfit include “more is more” and putting your own unique spin on a design. Courtesy of Get Yourself Dressed.
Although it can be challenging to manage a business with a full-time job, Baker has been able to successfully combine her love of fashion and music festivals with her business skills.
“Starting a business is never easy, and there have been so many times that I get cold feet and think, ‘What have I done? I could have had a nice holiday or made a small down payment on my house loan with the money and time I have put into Get Yourself Dressed,’” Baker says. “I know, though, that this was the right thing for me to do, no matter how successful I am at the end of the day. I love creating things even if it is potentially at my own cost. Seeing how happy people are when they wear my outfits makes it all totally worth it.”
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