Arising from Disruption #3 – conversations about adaptation, resourcefulness and self-sufficiency.
High Tea with Mrs Woo is an Australian-made, small-run clothing label based at Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It’s a collaboration of three sisters designing eloquent, timeful clothing and accessories with natural fibre fabrics. One sisters is Angela Foong who said despite the losses and pain, this pandemic is the reset button the world needs because we are all forced to stop and think about the way we want to live. See more in the notes below.
Find out more about Australian-made, small-run, natural-fibre clothing label High Tea with Mrs Woo here or follow them on Instagram.
What Angela said:
Feeling overwhelmed but also lucky we are in Australia, with great health and welfare systems, and knowing we will get through this challenging time by working together.
Our revenue streams have disappeared so we have uncertain times ahead – all design markets cancelled in the near future, retail store closed indefinitely – and now only able to connect online.
We immediately launched our IGTV ‘’quarantine series’’ of daily videos to connect directly with our community
It has made us think on our feet and be creative in how we connect with others in the same boat.
Now home-schooling, stay-at-home parenting and running a creative business.
As we are a migrant family from Malaysia, we have learned to be resourceful – financially and materially. We all need to be resourceful, thoughtful, stay at home and work together to keep our community safe and flatten the curve.
Thinking further and deeper about waste. For now, we are not buying any materials just working with the fabric we have, making yardage from offcuts, making waste into resource. It takes more time to do that, but we are being given time.
Every day we have a small dose of outside time while keeping social distance. We have a creative business and we are applying our creativity at home. The kids are loving it as they are getting precious time with us doing crazy craft projects. Using what we have around the house for cooking and making, keeping connected with daycare, school, friends and relatives via technology.
Tips
- Hope everyone steps back and takes this moment to reflect and think about what we want the brave new world to look like.
- Experiment with what is available – try IGTV and know it doesn’t have to be perfect – now is not the time to be hard on ourselves.
- Make the changes you have always wanted to make
Changes
- Despite the losses and pain, this is the reset button the world needs because we are all forced to stop and think about the way we want to live
- There will be changes in the supply chain and better systems to manage resources
- Sharing, collaborating and working together, will be even more important
- We need to connect with and appreciate our community, prioritise and appreciate relationships with each other
- Many businesses will sadly close and many jobs will be lost, but we have hope for renewal – that the new normal will be driven by sustainability, responsibility, compassion and ethics.