A Room of Her Own by Robyn Lea
In her new book A Room of Her Own, Robyn Lea explores the spaces of inspiring creative women, including the Sydney home of fashion designer and artist Heidi Middleton.
Words & Photography: Robyn Lea
Internationally acclaimed Australian fashion designer Heidi Middleton was only three years old when she moved with her parents and elder brother to the rural outskirts of Queensland’s capital city, Brisbane. Until that point, the family had lived in the conservative enclave of Sydney’s North Shore.
‘My parents are both quite free-spirited, and I think they felt a bit claustrophobic in the city and needed to break free and go on an adventure.’
After studying Commercial Art at Queensland College of Art, then working in advertising as an art director, Heidi joined forces with friend Sarah-Jane Clarke and started making clothes. They set their sights on a global platform. The first stop was London, where they sold jeans at the Portobello Road Market.
Then, in 1999, when their visas were due to expire, they returned to Australia and launched what was to become a cult label: Sass & Bide. Within ten years it had grown to become an international fashion empire.
In 2003, when the business was in full flight, Heidi began house-hunting around Palm Beach in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
The sunny 1940s home she subsequently found provided Heidi with a vital counterpoint to the increasing demands of the business, which felt ‘like a friendly, hungry monster that needed constant feeding’.
With three fashion lines under the one label and up to four ranges presented each year, long holidays were rare.
“The antithesis of fast fashion, each new piece in the ArtClub collection is created from remnant fabric that Heidi saves from landfill, and is designed to be handed down through generations.”
By 2011, Heidi and Sarah-Jane were ready for a change. They sold the controlling share of their company and stayed on as creative consultants until the remaining share of the business was sold in 2014; they then stepped out of it altogether.
Heidi and her family, including two young daughters, moved to France for a 12-month sabbatical.
During a weekend in the Médoc region of south-western France visiting family friends Mimi and Oddur Thorrison, the Middletons went house-hunting.
Mimi was a great ambassador for the area and ‘really sold the region to us’, recalls Heidi. ‘It’s wild and rugged, but there is a poetry and romance to the landscape and the old villages.’
They went to see an 1830s manor house, Les Tourelles, in Saint-Christoly-Médoc that Mimi had described as ‘a rough diamond’.
The five-bedroom home was set on three hectares and included an orchard, small vineyard, dairy and barn. Despite having been uninhabited for several years and looking somewhat derelict, its foundations were solid and it had elegant proportions, with turrets framing the façade and interiors with four-metre ceilings.
For Heidi, the potential for transformation was intoxicating. They made an offer and, three days later, owned the home.
“I remember thinking I needed to surround myself with great people, good food and flowers. I decided that every mealtime I’d light candles, have music playing and cook for the girls.”
Photo: Robyn Lea
After a year of renovating and a second year filling the new home with friends, family, love and creativity, the future looked bright: ‘I remember thinking I needed to surround myself with great people, good food and flowers. I decided that every mealtime I’d light candles, have music playing and cook for the girls.’
Later, after relocating back to Sydney, Heidi’s started a new business called ArtClub. The online-only atelier offers rare vintage garments for sale along with Heidi’s paintings and original clothing designs. The antithesis of fast fashion, each new piece is created from remnant fabric that she saves from landfill, and is designed to be handed down through generations. They are sewn in Heidi’s atelier by local collaborators, each of whom signs and numbers the garments like limited-edition artworks before they are mailed to customers.
ArtClub is located in Surry Hills, in the heart of the city and the company has a wonderful buzz and energy. Middleton continues to adjust her life to find the right rhythm and flow, and by living with an open heart and expressing her inner world through art, fashion, poetry and interiors, she has become an inspiring example to like-minded women around the world.
A Room of Her Own by Robyn Lea, published by Thames & Hudson, RRP $65, will be available from March 30th.