Exploring Life & Business with Melbourne (Elli Blanford, Mary Grace Hart, Palmer Heath)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melbourne (Elli Blanford, Mary Grace Hart, Palmer Heath).

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Melbourne’s origin traces back to our teenage years when we shared a home on Melbourne Place. Our residence on Melbourne held four kids, all close in age and sharing common interests in fashion. As we matured, the foundation deepened, revealing our mother’s enthusiasm for distinctive clothing and her love and skill for transforming them.

The presence of four closets became a playground of creativity but also a battleground when someone couldn’t locate their desired clothes due to borrowing disputes. As sisters, we always would have ideas individually of items we felt every woman needed in their closet and when we started brainstorming together, we ended up designing over 20 pieces.

After collaborating, we had confidence that coming together as a team could work in designing elevated women’s clothing. In September of 2023, Melbourne launched the very first Fall/Winter collection, including seven pieces total with different color variations of pants, tops, dresses, and outerwear. We are in the process of creating our Spring/Summer collection that we plan to launch in April of 2024.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This journey has had many ups and downs, but all of them were and currently are well worth it. We have heard people say this many times as we face hardship, “If it were easy, everyone would do it” and that still remains true. Though the bumps have been extremely challenging at times, we wouldn’t be where we are or learned what we have without them.

The beginning of 2022 is when we as sisters began to dream of the brand coming to life. We started creating designs and found a production manager online that helped us create samples. Though she has helped other brands that were primarily athleisure-focused, she was not what we needed as first-timers doing this. In figuring out we needed to go a different direction took lots of time, money, and designs that we were not proud of and didn’t feel like a good representation of who we are. From then, life events happened, including weddings, work, and financial problem-solving that ultimately led us to put a halt on the collection. We then met with a new production partner in February of 2023 who was extremely passionate about Melbourne, and from then, we buckled back in, created new designs, and never looked back.

While working together as sisters is a dream come true, it is also something we have to navigate at times. In starting any business, there are many decisions as equal owners; there will be disagreements on and sometimes finding the solution is easier than others. All three of us have full-time jobs outside of Melbourne, which is a daily challenge, but we have to trust that another sister will pull through on a task when the others can’t.

Overall, we are so grateful for the bumps in the road because without them, we wouldn’t know what we do now.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Melbourne?
Melbourne is a sister trio with Mary Grace, Elli, and Palmer. We feel the brand can be described as chic, ready-to-wear fashion that also allows women to be comfortable in their everyday lifestyle. We as sisters design each piece together which is very special. In the design process, we are not only thinking of our age group, but also thinking of our mom’s age group in hopes that Melbourne can give them confidence in their everyday wardrobe as well.

Although we grew up in the same household, we all studied different things in college and have experienced very different jobs prior to Melbourne. The different skill sets we each bring to the table are each so valuable in what we’re doing now, which makes us such a strong team.

Women purchasing items that we have designed completely from start to finish is something we are very proud of. Our pieces in the FW23 collection are unique closet staples with high-quality fabrics. We are very proud of the details in each item and feel like those touches create something people haven’t seen before.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
There are so many people that deserve credit throughout the journey of Melbourne thus far. If we have to name a few, our parents would be number one. They have not only allowed us to be creative in our clothes since day one but taught us about hard work and good work ethic and are both a listening ear when we are down.

We also have an amazing consultant who helps bring our designs and thoughts to life and makes the process easier. Without her knowledge helping us first-timers, we wouldn’t be where we are.

Lastly, without our customers, we wouldn’t be doing this. A huge reason why we started this brand is due to the kind words throughout the years on our clothing. Throughout the process of launching Melbourne, we have had an overwhelming amount of support even when we didn’t have a product to show. The kind words and encouraging messages pushed us to keep going through the hardship and helped us to keep believing that our collections will be something special to other people outside of our trio.

Pricing:

• $150-350

Contact Info:

• Website: www.melbourneclothing.com
• Instagram: @shopmelbourneclothing

Image Credits
Photo: Blake Ballard @blakeballardphoto Photo: Josh Hart @joshhartmedia Edit; Garrett Lobaugh @garrett.lobaugh