Introducing... Ellie Mücke

This week CLOG has the pleasure of talking to Ellie Mücke, designer extraordinaire, about her label MüCKE. With a strong focus on sustainable design and living, Ellie is a firm believer in ensuring her label is an extension of her clean and green way of life. Ellie grew up surrounded by art and craft - her mum is an art teacher while her dad is fine wood-turner - and has grown to be one of the brightest stars in fashion at the moment.

"Over time, I realised my need to create alongside my passion for people and the environment, inspired the desire to change the way we consume things. These creative passions, in the hope for a healthier planet, led me on a journey to discover sustainability and design.

"I believe that when this focus is on monetary profit you loose sight of what it means to be designing things that are sustainable."

Bravo Ellie!

Not only is Ellie a sustainable superstar (Is that a cringe-worthy alliteration? I don't think so!) but she also won the Emerging Designers' Award at Flinders Quarter 2006. The exhibition and competition were part of the Melbourne Fashion Festival. You can read more about Ellie's mentorship in previous posts here.

Happy Friday everyone, and happy reading!


How did you get where you are today?
A passion for making things with my hands lead me to discover the BA(fashion) course at RMIT. On graduating in 2001, I fled the country and travelled to Europe, Morocco, Japan and England. On returning I worked in commercial fashion and it cemented the existing knowledge I had, of never wanting to work in commercial fashion. Essentially, that is what inspired me to take the plunge and launch MüCKE.

You've done so many amazing things since winning the Emerging Designers Award at Flinders Quarter in 2006! What have the highlights been so far? Fame, fortune, getting stopped on the streets?
Hmm… well I haven’t seen much of the fame or fortune bit! Most recently I collaborated with Anthea Van Kopplen on [envelope]. It was a new challenge and learning experience to work together on presenting our combined ideas. We hosted workshops and a fashion show in a Melbourne laneway. It was inspiring to work with a host of great people and close friends and finally to see MüCKE garments on a catwalk.

MüCKE's environmentally-friendly nature stems from...
A passion for people, a healthy planet and a desire to engage in and facilitate positive action and change.

In my spare time...
I love cooking and eating and organic food shopping at Ceres! Eating, sipping coffee or red wine and socializing over food with some good tunes, I love it.

My favourite thing I've made so far...
Oooh, so many favourites! But probably the shirtdress. I designed it a couple of years ago and it’s made out of a back to front mans shirt. I’ve been making and selling them ever since and it never ceases to amaze me how simple and effective they are. The one pictured below is in partial construction/deconstruction.

As a child you were...
…surrounded by craft, construction, donkeys, chooks and trees! My parents like to build and make stuff too, so I reckon I inherited that.

If I could do anything in the world tomorrow, I would...
Take a trip back to the Himalayas of India and Nepal and eat dahl baht with the locals.

Photography by Tobias Titz, hair and make-up by Claire Leighton, model: Angelique