Signature Style With Fashion Designer Emma Mulholland

In the depths of the Covid lockdown in 2020, supermodel Gigi Hadid announced her pregnancy via Instagram Live wearing a set of Holiday the Label linen pyjamas in a green check print.

Hadid threw buckets of praise at the Australian label. “It’s all I want to wear,” she gushed. “Holiday, if you’re watching, I’m obsessed and if you make these sets in a hundred other colours, I will take them and I appreciate it.”

It was a huge moment for Holiday. As businesses around the world struggled to “pivot” to stay afloat during the pandemic, the label saw a stratospheric spike in sales as Hadid’s fans tripped over one another to bag a set of Holiday PJs.

Emma Mulholland, the designer behind Holiday the Label, says that going into the pandemic, she thought business would slow, but it “blew up” instead. “It was a good time for a brand like ours,” she says. “We weren’t trying to sell dresses that you wear to weddings. Being a label that you can wear around the house and brighten up your day definitely helped.”

The uptick in sales required a speedy expansion to keep up with demand. “We had to grow really quickly with our team and manage what we were doing from home,” she says. “It was quite a small operation but grew into this monster that we had to move to a warehouse pretty quickly.”

The ability to work from anywhere – which for much of 2020 was Mulholland’s lounge room – has been crucial to Holiday the Label’s operation. Mulholland’s day typically starts with answering emails and checking in with the production team in Bali, where Holiday the Label’s clothes are made, before moving onto the work of designing.

“When you run your own business, there are so many hats you have to put on during the day,” she says. “A lot of things happen on my laptop … When you’re studying fashion design, you think it’s always going to be pinning clothes on the models, but the reality is that you are on the computer a lot.”

Holiday the Label is Mulholland’s second foray into the fashion business. In 2013, the Sydney-based designer launched an eponymous ready-to-wear label that wowed the crowd at fashion weeks. In 2017 she sought a change of pace from the frenetic high fashion cycle and launched Holiday the Label.

The brand’s laid-back aesthetic is in line with Mulholland’s personal “fairly casual” style. “I like statement pants and plain tops and knitwear,” she says. “I like things to be quite feminine but not too girly – not flouncy and too pretty. I like streetwear that’s made for women. I find that when you wear the unisex pieces, it looks too tomboyish. I don’t think there’s enough streetwear out there for girls. That’s where we wanted to start with Holiday.”

Where once Mulholland found much inspiration for new pieces and collections from travel, she now mines “movies and music and Instagram and books” for fresh ideas. Favourites are films by David Lynch and Tony Scott’s True Romance, the 1993 cult classic written by Quentin Tarantino starring Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette.

When Broadsheet spoke to Mulholland she was 10 days out from opening her first store in Paddington, a space she shares with label Double Rainbouu. “It’s always been a dream of mine to have a store. When I was starting, I would always get that question, ‘When are you opening a store?’ and I never thought it was the right time.” Now, she says, with the success of the online store and the easing of lockdown restrictions, she feels like it’s “perfect timing” to establish a physical footprint.

“Fit is a big part of our brand, so I’d love to have the space for people to come and try on the pieces for themselves,” she says. “They might not buy them in-store, but at least they know exactly how they fit for them and get a better feel for the fabrication and print and colour. It’s so much nicer to see that in real life.”

Mulholland has advice for anyone considering a career in fashion. “Try to experience as many different parts of the industry as you can before jumping into anything, because it’s huge commitment starting your own brand. Think about who you want to work for,” she says.

In all creative endeavours she says it’s essential to “be true to yourself and what you like. You don’t have to be super on-trend. I knew no one liked printed pants when I started making them. It’s amazing to see how big a trend it is now when people used to think they were too out there and crazy,” she says. “Do what you like doing, not what everyone else is doing. That’s what will make you stand out in the end.”

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