Emma Mulholland

Were you always someone creative? Or was it fashion that you were particularly passionate about? I would love to learn a little more about your early years, and your development.

I wouldn't say my family are super creative. My mum was a teacher and my dad was a solicitor. I was searching for something different from everyone else in my school and friendship group. I was still having to buy magazines to actually work out what I liked. I’d go to the library, you know, stuff kids just don't even consider doing these days. I’ve always liked clothes, but I didn't know a lot about the industry. My parents also didn't know a lot about the industry, so we just fumbled our way around trying to get me into things that were of interest. I grew up around the beach and my dad was a surfer. I attempted to surf when I was younger, but never really had the commitment that it does take. Have you ever lived in Australia?

Yeah I grew up in Sydney!

Well not sure if it was your time, but Australia in the 90s had really iconic surf brands, and that's what everyone at school would wear. I held on to really loving that look, even though it obviously went in and out of fashion.

Why do you think you connected with fashion so much? The colours? The unique ability to create your own pieces?

I was a bit shy growing up, I think when I dressed myself and found cool pieces, it was always like a conversation starter, and maybe made me feel quite special in a weird way. I was maybe not loud enough, or out there enough. I loved art, but I just didn't have much of a connection to it. I really wanted to make stuff that could sort of be worn. I just kept going with that. I started really young, probably too young. I got into college straight away, and moved to Sydney like one year out of school. Now everyone's just starting their own labels and stuff, but I studied for like four years. I decided to start my first label because I just couldn't find anything like that really fit the way I wanted. I had Emma Mulholland, my name brand for about four years before I started Holiday.

Do you feel looking back, that going to college and learning all these skills is still useful for emerging talent? What are the changes you see, and how has your process changed? It seems to be a whole different market and industry now.

I think I was just more naive and wanted to be creative and have fun clothes. Obviously the business side is such a huge part, and now founders are thrown into the branding so much. I sort of wasn’t of the opinion that I was going to ever need to be front and centre of such things. That's really changed. I just wanted to make clothes for myself and it’s stayed that way the whole time. People have sort of come along for the journey with me, which is always really lovely. I've seen the big trend about, for example, cotton activewear. My algorithm is just full of all these cotton activewear brands now, and everyone hates polyester and it's just become this big demonisation of polyester. It's just so crazy how quick people get on to something and just decide that they know everything about it, without the proper research. They are the ones still walking about with plastic cups of matcha. I'm just blown away by the whole industry today.

So do you feel you now have a need to explain why you do certain things, and use certain materials, much more than in the past?

People are definitely wanting that from a brand now, and we are trying to talk about it more, because we do some special things that people don't get to really see. Brands used to be a bit more, like, not exactly gatekeeper-y, but not really splashing information around. Our screen printing has always been a really important part of our brand, like hand screen printed fabrics and stuff. It's not just a fabric we pick out at the fabric market, and it gets made. I think that's the sort of thing I'd like to show more. I appreciate people wanting to see that side of things, but that was never the way. You kept your factories to yourself. It was very much you have to earn them, and it takes a long time. I would do multiple trips and meet people and grow relationships over years, and now people are just putting them up willy-nilly. It’s different.

It does however feel like gatekeeping is coming back. People are realising with things like AI, there may need to be a return of exclusivity and somehow maintain the specialness of human made things. Things are changing so fast, and creatives are trying to figure out how to move along with it.

I think the algorithm and being on Instagram, you see so many things. I feel like we're so quick to see things that were already done, and think that it's too late to do those things. I think the brand's always had a really strong direction, but for the next collection, I almost want to shut off everything for a week or two, just to clear my head. I always want to keep trying different things. We are sort of going back more to resortwear, I just feel like it's where we sit. Australia's a hard place to do a full four seasons.

"I was maybe not loud enough, or out there enough."

Interesting. Is it because of the size or weather?

Doing a full winter collection, unless you're wholesaling, is a bit of a tricky one for us. We sort of just predominantly want to focus on summer all year round now. My second summer is in line with you in Los Angeles, or Europe. I don't think we don't get to rug up as much.

Are seasons even important for brands that are not luxury or larger corporations?

Not with Instagram and TikTok. I think if you're predominantly trying to be a wholesale brand, those seasons are quite important. I don't want my brand to just be like churn and burn, churn and burn. I just really focus on special pieces that you can wear all year round. I couldn't keep going with these big drops and you barely even get to celebrate each piece.

Also as a consumer, there are so many brands that I don't even think about seasons. Unless it's something like Prada, I don't expect seasons. However if you have conceptually one long season, how do you stay motivated with new and fresh ideas?

I guess it is a little less unstructured to not be thinking whether we need a coat and a puffer jacket. It's a lot more around the Holiday aesthetic, to just be focused purely on resort and summer. I think just summer all year would be great.

Where do you personally look for inspiration?

Movies and music were sort of the starting point to everything when I was growing up, I was really into the John Hughes sort of films like Pretty In Pink and Sixteen Candles. I would look at what celebrities would wear in magazines when I was in high school. I think I could get Vogue in Newcastle, but not The Face or i-D or anything cool like that. I would come to Sydney to get those. Fashion school was just a big messy time where I made a lot of great friends, and worked on different brands.

How did you use these people and brands to initiate your creativity? If you had a celebrity in mind, are you thinking about dressing them, or more of a moodboard?

I guess Daryl Hannah is a good example. I did a collection two years ago that was inspired by Splash and Daryl Hannah. I love rewatching films and taking screengrabs. The internet is so amazing now, as you can find whatever you want. So every now and then, I'll be watching a movie or something that I need to sort of reference. It's just a bit more organic with those sorts of collections, however for everything else, I just build moodboards.

Do you design for a particular person?

I guess myself.

Well that makes life easy [laughs]

I just always think about what I'm wanting. What's not there? What am I looking at all the time? And what's sort of missing from my wardrobe? I think that's sort of the starting point for me. Also now as we do a bit of kidswear, I'm thinking about what I’d want my son to wear.

"I love rewatching films and taking screengrabs."

Are you conscious of what is in the zeitgeist, or what the algorithms are telling you is hot? You mentioned you are aware of it, but is it something you think about for the brand?

Yeah I do. I mean like you used to just post a campaign with great photos, and it got a lot of traction, but now it's so different. You have to be constantly coming up with new ways, because people don't really get that excited about an amazing photo shoot as much anymore. Currently it feels that it’s more about a natural photo of someone wearing something, or even things hanging up.

Hanging up? Like on a hanger?

Yeah, just more of a laid-back feel. I guess that is the way to go at the moment. It seems to be what everyone wants to see, which is fair enough. But yeah, so we do think about, you know, also with colours and prints always.

How negatively does it affect you?

We just roll with what we're doing, and hope that it all works out in the end.

Do you have a process for creating, start to finish?

It can be really quick sometimes, but I really like to slow the process down if I'm unsure about something. If I'm not 100% happy with it, it takes a lot longer with the going back and forth, to get that right. I'm not as quick to release stuff as I used to be, but if it's just a repeat of something we've already done in a new print or a colour, that's obviously a bit quicker. I think having your signature core styles is really important for identity and trust with the customer. I'm definitely a lot slower. It drives everyone a bit crazy, especially because I test everything as well.

Is that not a common thing to do?

Not big brands, but I get things made up in my size and wear them before we even produce them. That's just to iron out any of the little issues that might arise. That's only with new styles, but it probably still frustrates my team, but that's how things are just a little bit slower.

How difficult is it to design for children in comparison to adults?

It's a lot easier. It's just a lot more fun. They don't complain. It's just very relaxed and very easy.

Did you decide to do kidswear because you were looking for clothes that you liked for your child?

Yeah! I've got a boy. It's just all trucks and dinosaurs, and I just couldn't deal with that. I think people like fun, colourful kids clothes. We haven't really focused on it so much with marketing, because it's just we don't want to take away from the main brand at this point. It's sort of just been a word of mouth thing, and pop-ups.

Speaking of stores, did you not used to have a shop in Sydney?

We had a store for three years, but we just have gone back online recently.

Was that a valuable experience for you? Some people love having bricks and mortar, and others hate the extra pressure.

I don't think it was necessary for us as much. We love doing pop-ups. I think they're really fun! They're short and non-committal. The big standalone store was just a bit draining and it didn't feel like it was super necessary in Australia. Our second biggest market is from the US. We prefer to be organising a pop-up over there, then maintaining a store here.

I think Los Angeles would love a little Emma Mulholland!

I hope so. I don't think it's necessary for brands to have a storefront these days. I think it's a nice thing to do, but only if it’s something you want to do, and something you can manage. For me it was like having another business. It was lovely to have at the time. It was something I needed to tick off, as I'd always wanted to do it.

Having a store feels like it requires not only a budget and time, but so many other factors like marketing and location. I agree with you, if you don’t have the headspace for it, it might not be the best decision.

I think pop ups are more exciting!

And a little more stress-free. As a customer, the exclusivity of having access for a short period of time might also bring me in more to shop. Apart from additional pop-ups, what are you looking forward? Are there some interesting things in the works?

I think we just would like to grow the collection into having more structure and a bit more seasonality. However, I don't want to rock the boat too much at the moment. Working on collaborations around the world with different people is something we really like to do. We've got a few things coming out soon that are exciting to me, especially with resort. I'd love to do something in Korea, and as mentioned, Los Angeles. Ever since Covid, I feel like it's been such a long, slow drawn out time, so am excited to keep building on what we have achieved so far.