OUR STORY

OUR STORY – NORTHWEAR

We are twin sisters behind this brand, and our story started a long time ago. We are wanting to share this story to bring awareness to our brand and what we stand for.

My name is Amy, and I am the eldest twin and my story started at a very young age.

I come from a good background and a loving family but unfortunately, I became mixed up in the wrong crowd and from the age of 15 my whole world changed. From alcohol and drug use to domestic violence, my world became a very ugly place. I had a very toxic relationship with an older boyfriend who was in and out of jail constantly. I was very confused and lost at the time that I started using drugs and alcohol to escape my reality. I was so badly affected from this relationship that it broke me. How can someone who’s supposed to love you hurt you so bad.  

The night that changed my life was when my ex threatened to kill me if I ever left him and soon, I realised this was no joke as he pushed me to the ground and held a large rock at my head screaming at me for no reason. Now I knew if I did not get out of this now, I would probably never see my family and friends again. I remember praying to God to save me and at that very moment my dad’s car showed up. I hear this car from the backyard, and I run for my life. I was not expecting anyone to pick me up that night as I told my parents I was staying out, but my father followed his gut feeling to come and get me and thank God he did. A few weeks later he went to jail for drug possession and other chargers and that was the day I escaped him.

I finally went and received professional help and told my family everything. I promised myself no one would ever hurt me again. I signed up to the gym with my dad a month later and we went every day for the next two years. This was my new purpose, I felt strong, unstoppable and like no one could ever hurt me again.

My goal was to become physically fit and strong so I could protect myself. This was the start of my own healing journey. My fitness journey started at the age of 18. I studied personal training and became a qualified PT. A year later I started to think about making my own gym wear. My leggings would either slide down or be too tight and uncomfortable when exercising so I wanted to design my own.

Another year past and I never did anything about it I was too focused on saving all my money to move. To be honest I was too scared to even do it. I was so worried of failure, of spending all my hard-earned money I had saved. I also didn’t even know where to start. So, I just pushed the idea aside for a while.

It was only until the age of 26 I finally did something about it. I had another melt down. I had to leave my dream job/potentially new business venture behind due to another break up and that’s when I got serious. I had no job at the time and wasn’t in the best head space mentally. But something stirred that dream up in me again and pushed me to start researching and contacting manufacturers. I then went on a Bali trip to go see a manufacturer and the journey all started from there. Here’s where my sister steps in.

Ellie started studying fashion and design in Melbourne at Collarts. She was the one who taught us everything about design and what we needed to know. She became my backbone. We created a business plan, set our goals out and went for it. Most of the time we were unsure of what we were doing but we just did it anyway and learnt from our mistakes and kept going. And this method started to work.

Ellie had also been through a similar relationship growing up and this brought a lot of depression, grief and hurt on her. So, for us to come together and create something that was our own made us feel empowered and super proud. I honestly don’t know where I would be without my sister.

Northwear is now our backbone, our baby, a dream stirred from pain but never giving up despite our past experiences.

OUR STORY xx