Stretton to lead mentoring drive
A practicing accountant until 14 years ago, the 47-year-old mother-of-two opted for a change of pace after struggling to find a way to articulate her creative voice.
Since that day she has gone on to build a clothing empire which produces four labels, wholesales to around 140 international stockists and reportedly turns over more than $8 million per annum. She has also added magazine publisher, mentor, author and industry leader to her growing list of achievements.
Now the Waikato-based designer, also the chairperson of industry group Fashion Industry New Zealand (FINZ), has taken on her biggest challenge yet - to encourage female designers in Australia to work off the same song sheet.
Stretton said from a business perspective there were many young female designers struggling to make sound creative and economic decisions because others were too afraid of competition to help them out.
"It's not a matter of telling others what you're doing in your next collection or where you're drawing your inspiration from. It's about opening this industry up and sharing life experiences."
Stretton, who despite owning around 30 retail outlets was forced to show in a group ready-to-wear showing at the recent Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, has devised a multi-pronged attack to help achieve her aim.
Her first move will be to launch her business title, currently dubbed Her Magazine but shortened to Her from next month, into the market here.
Targeted specifically at "intelligent" business women, the magazine will feature profiles on inspirational Australian business owners, advice from leading business heads and stories from every day women doing their bit to strike a healthy balance between their home and working lives.
The second wave will see Stretton extend her New Zealand-based Her Business conferences into Australia, encouraging networking among attendees and utilising her extensive contact base to encourage ongoing business mentoring.
In keeping with a similar theme, Stretton will also launch a book, dubbed The business of being Annah in September, the foreword of which has been written by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
"What I want to do is to infiltrate women's groups over there and appear as a guest speaker to encourage more interaction of this sort. Surely, the initiation process doesn't need to be as tough as it currently is," Stretton said.