Lorna Jane Clarkson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lorna Jane Clarkson
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Lorna Jane Clarkson with her pet moodle, Roger
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| Born | 24 November 1964 Lancashire, England
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| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Fashion designer, entrepreneur, author |
| Spouse(s) | Bill Clarkson |
Lorna Jane Clarkson (born Lorna Jane Smith on 24 November 1964) is an Australian fashion designer, business owner, and author. She is famous for creating the Lorna Jane brand. This brand makes special clothes for women to wear when they are active, like when they exercise. She also owns many stores that sell these clothes. By 2015, there were 146 Lorna Jane stores in Australia and 42 in the United States. Her clothes were also sold in other countries like South Africa, Britain, and Canada.
Lorna Jane Clarkson was recognized as one of Australia's wealthiest women who earned their own money. In 2014, her fortune was estimated at $50 million.
In 2020, the Lorna Jane company faced issues for advertising claims about its clothes protecting against illnesses like COVID-19. The company later admitted that Lorna Jane herself approved these ads, which were found to be misleading.
Contents
Lorna Jane's Early Life and Dreams
Lorna Jane Smith was born in 1964 in a small town in Lancashire, England. She was the younger of two sisters. Her mother, Jean Hale, raised the girls by herself. When Lorna was ten, her family moved to Brisbane, Australia.
As a child, Lorna Jane loved to be active. She learned ballet, played netball, and was a school cheerleader. She went to Springwood State High School. As a teenager, she worked at a shoe store. After high school, she wanted to be a journalist. However, her mother encouraged her to become a dental technician instead.
While studying to be a dental therapist, Lorna Jane started teaching aerobics at night. After finishing her studies, she worked for Queensland Health. She provided dental care in schools in Cairns. In Cairns, she ran her first marathon and was even crowned Miss Cairns. She also met her future husband, Bill Clarkson, there. Lorna Jane continued teaching aerobics before and after her dental work. She taught up to 13 classes a week, sometimes with 50 or 60 students in each class! She also had a third job, baking healthy cakes for cafes.
She started using the name "Lorna Jane" to avoid confusion with another Lorna at one of her early jobs.
Starting the Lorna Jane Brand
As a fitness instructor, Lorna Jane found it hard to find cool clothes to wear for her classes. So, she started sewing her own. She didn't have special training in making clothes. But she had always loved fashion. Since she was 16, she had been crocheting bikinis. From age 18, she customized her own clothes. By age 21, she was designing and making her own outfits.
She began by carefully taking apart a favorite swimsuit. She used it to create a pattern from newspaper. This became the design for her first leotard. Her students loved her outfits and asked her to make clothes for them too.
When she was 24, Lorna Jane moved back to Brisbane. She continued teaching aerobics to huge classes. She also kept sewing activewear for herself and her students. She loved making activewear so much that she decided to do it full-time. In 1989, the gym owner where she worked offered her a space above the gym for a studio. Her mother helped her with money to buy materials and pay for rent.
At first, people didn't understand her idea of stylish activewear. Even big brands like Nike didn't have stores just for their clothing back then. When her future husband, Bill Clarkson, showed her designs to a big department store, they weren't interested. They didn't know where to sell the clothes. Bill said, "The buyer looked at me like I was crazy." Eventually, the store bought a small collection. They placed it in a corner between swimwear and lingerie. Lorna Jane is even credited with coining the word "activewear" in 1989.
Opening the First Stores
Lorna Jane and Bill decided to sell the Lorna Jane clothes themselves. In 1990, they opened their first store. It was on an upper floor of a shopping center in Brisbane. Their early success showed them their dream was possible. The business earned enough money on its first day to cover a whole week's rent!
In 1991, a customer bought all the clothes from their second store in one go. She paid $25,000, planning to resell them. Lorna Jane and Bill were thrilled, but then realized they had no clothes left! The story of Bill riding his bicycle back to Lorna Jane's workshop with $25,000 cash in a bag is a famous tale about their early success.
After starting the Lorna Jane business, Lorna Jane studied fashion at TAFE college. She earned a Diploma of Fashion. She later said that this qualification wasn't really needed because she had already learned so much from her hands-on experience.
Lorna Jane Smith married Bill Clarkson on 11 September 1994.
Expanding the Business
By 2000, the business needed a bigger factory. To pay for this, the Clarksons sold their home in Brisbane for $450,000. Lorna Jane called it their "dream home." They had spent seven years making it perfect. From their deck, they could even see the church where they got married.
They used the money to buy a factory building in Fortitude Valley for $465,000. They fixed it up for making clothes and built an apartment above it to live in. The building was "dirty and full of termites" when they bought it. But within two years, its value grew to $4 million. This helped them get more money to grow their business even further.
Lorna Jane and Bill Clarkson still own 60% of the Lorna Jane brand. In 2010, a company called CHAMP Ventures bought 40% of the business. In 2016, the whole business was estimated to be worth $500 million.
In 2014, the Clarksons thought about selling the business. But they decided not to. Lorna Jane said she would be "half a person without the brand." She felt she wouldn't know what to do without it.
In 2015, the Lorna Jane company faced some public criticism. This included concerns about how employees were treated and certain job advertisements. Lorna Jane later said that dealing with these issues was stressful. But it also allowed her to show a more human side to the public.
The Clarksons started spending more time in the United States. They were helping the brand grow there. In early 2016, they bought a property in Santa Monica, California. It has two large houses. They live in one, and the other is a design studio for Lorna.
Lorna Jane Clarkson has written six books about health and wellbeing. Some titles include Move, Nourish, Believe (2011) and Love You (2017).
Lorna Jane's Personal Life and Habits
Lorna Jane decided not to have children, focusing instead on her career.
She has a Moodle dog named Roger, who was born in 2011. Roger even has his own Instagram account!
The Clarksons bought a riverfront home in Hamilton for $10.3 million in 2010. It was the most expensive home bought in Brisbane that year.
Lorna Jane has daily routines that help her make time for important things. Every night, she lays out her activewear for the next day. This reminds her to put it on as soon as she wakes up. She gets up early and starts her day with an hour of "me time." Then she does physical activity like yoga, lifting weights, or walking her dog. She feels this morning routine gives her energy and a positive mindset. She says most of her design ideas come to her while she is exercising.
Lorna Jane admires famous people like Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs. But she says her husband, Bill, is her biggest inspiration. She has collected inspiring quotes and images her "whole life." She has mood boards all over her home.
Lorna Jane believes in not spending more money than you have. She tries to stay debt-free. She says this was the best advice her mother gave her. She also likes to be very involved in her business. In 2012, she still went to the office every day, often being the first to arrive and last to leave. She says she will still "get into the trenches and fix the seam on the inside of a tight."
Lorna Jane's main goal is to inspire women around the world to live a more active life. She often wears activewear for public appearances. She feels this is more true to who she is than wearing business clothes. She believes that being authentic is a key part of her success.
In 2020, the company faced legal action after claiming a new product stopped the spread of Coronavirus. A judge found that Lorna Jane had no scientific reason for these claims. The company admitted that Lorna Jane approved the misleading ads and made some false statements herself.
