Liz Davenport is a household name in fashion, having dedicated 35 years to dressing women the world over.
SHE has designed clothes for royalty and celebrities, created an international following for her brand, been represented by stores in Australia’s most fashionable locations, and long been a member of Australia’s hall of fashion fame – winning the grand award from the fashion industry of Australia not long after her inception in the market.
To Liz Davenport, the purpose of life really is clear.
“My life is about creating beautiful clothes,” she told WA Business News.
It is safe to assume that fashion is her passion.
Originally trained as a teacher, Ms Davenport opened a clothing store on Murray Street in 1974 and, due to her frustrations with the calibre of stock available, put her sewing skills to use and made her own, manufacturing the first Liz Davenport range the same year she opened.
The Liz Davenport range was an instant success; the brand was sold to 300 boutiques and department stores before she opened her first branded store in the early 1980s.
Obviously, it’s been all growth from there.
“The rule of thumb was we wanted to have the best shop in each of the highest profile fashion locations in Australia,” Ms Davenport says.
Her fashion empire has attracted not only a loyal following from her staff – with the longest serving staff member retiring last year after 29 years – but a loyal customer base.
“We have ladies who have six or seven hundred Liz Davenport garments. They don’t buy anything else, they have never bought anything else,” Ms Davenport says.
Her first customers started wearing the label when they were in their 30s with some of the faithful now into their 70s and still buying the brand.
Tailoring to every new generation of consumer has been challenging for Ms Davenport.
“That’s a real test, you have ladies who have been shopping with you for 25 years and girls who have just stepped in to your world,” Ms Davenport says of keeping abreast of her growing market.
“Many designers don’t want people with a bigger hip wearing their clothes because they think it is detrimental to their brand.
“The curvy body is not part of the deal, so you get this trough of women who aren’t catered for.
“I expanded the brand to embrace her life, no matter if she changed her size. Beautiful clothes are not just for the realm of the pretty young thing, they are a signature for every age.”
Ms Davenport says she has aimed to stay attuned to her customers’ needs by receiving a weekly ‘trend report’ from each of her 11 stores.
“I am constantly trying to reinvent the brand,” she adds.
Liz Davenport is now a family business, with designer daughters, Jane and Katie, and her son Peter – now managing director – contributing to the brand’s innovation.
And Ms Davenport says she has a particular motive for staying at the top of her game.
“It is the constant excitement of the challenge of getting it right,” she says.
“It is about more than designing something and saying ‘well I designed that and now I expect you to wear it’. I say ‘this is how we have interpreted what you would like, now would you like to wear it?’”
Ms Davenport shows no sign of slowing down after her 35 years in the industry; alongside the standard seasonal release of clothing ranges, she has major plans in motion to write a how-to guide for women challenged in dressing for success, and she is designing a lingerie and sleepwear line.
By extending the product line, she says Liz Davenport will become a mini department store, where “we can tell our story better”.
Her heart may lie with the fashion industry but Ms Davenport’s career has been varied.
She has raised three children, had a stint in politics running for the seat of Nedlands for the Liberals for Forests in 2001, and brought John Howard, Kim Beazley and Australia’s wool industry together in a Canberra forum to improve the industry’s supply chain.
It is clear she has a philanthropic side, but she says her underpinning focus is preservation of habitat.
“It is not our position on this planet to do things like cut down old-growth forests,” Ms Davenport says, pointing to her support for bans on logging in old-growth forests.
“Apart from the environment, there is the social spectrum of the social responsibility of people in business to help, to give other people a helping hand.”
Ms Davenport says she lives by a simple credo: “business should have a purpose beyond profit. Some people would say ‘as well as’ but I say beyond.”
Favourite thing about Perth?
March weather, the beauty of this city, it is a wonderful place to bring up a family. I wouldn’t have traded bringing up my three children in Perth for bringing them up in any other part of the world.
Briefly describe yourself.
Committed, passionate, strong sense of justice, funny, I just love life, I love being me in this career.
If you had to choose one colour to wear for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Blue, the brightest blue you could possibly find. If I had to choose a second one it would be purple. They are uplifting colours. Having said that I would put black under it to keep it slimming.
If you are not wearing Liz Davenport what are you wearing?
Nothing.
What is your greatest indulgence?
The first thing I thought of was chocolate. But my greatest indulgence is fabric and blue glass – my collection of blue glass is uplifting, anything that is blue glass, I have to have it.
