• Budding fashion entrepreneur Alice Keltie is proud of her first line of fashion including a dress and 11 styles of leggings.
Alice Keltie, 18, dreams of having her fashions worn around the world.
Now she is going to have the chance to introduce her online fashion business called DreaMachine to all the experts and entrepreneurs-in-the-making at an upcoming IT event in Merimbula when she takes part in an event similar to the well-known Dragon’s Den.
Alice is using the event for her formal launch announcement and will give a demonstration of her business at the StartUp campaign section of the event in Merimbula on March 15.
Organisers of the Merimbula event really admire Alice’s work and say it could be a real sign of things to come.
She graduated from Lumen Christi College last year and is now devoted full time to developing the DreaMachine Clothing label.
Alice does credit her art and photography classes and the encouragement of Mrs Otton, which developed her love of art.
“I decided I wanted to do more and having a look at what’s out there, I decided I could do a lot better,” she said.
She sold her body jewellery stall that she operated at the local markets and also invested all her earnings from working at her dad’s fish and chip shop over the years.
Alice has been developing clothing designs for almost a year now and has a couple of artists locally and overseas who have agreed to let her use their designs.
These designs are then sent to graphic designer Jacqui Teague at Tura Beach who matches them to the relevant clothing items before sending off the designs to a clothing factory in Guangzhou City in China.
So far Alice has 11 styles of leggings and one dress in her initial DreaMachine Clothing line.
Alice did research clothing manufacturers in Melbourne but decided to get her clothes made in China so they can be affordable for “everyone, especially young girls with Saturday jobs”.
And she has also welcomed the assistance of family and friends to do a professional photo shoot in Melbourne to show off her initial clothing line online.
The DreaMachine website will be launched as part of the entrepreneurial event but she already has 1000 likes on her “dreamachineclothing” page on Facebook.
The event where business people will pitch their ideas to a tough panel of experts will be live streamed and can be viewed at www.merimbu lanewsonline.com.au.
