Poppy Ming-Mei Voon has been immersed in fashion since the day she was born.
Her mother founded her own clothing store Voon on Wellington's Willis street, before moving to open a bridal studio on Cuba Street. After finishing school, Poppy followed in her footsteps by learning how to sew and make her own clothing, while interning and working across multiple fashion retail stores.
Poppy's creations took off once she began sharing them on social media, generating interest among her friends and followers. Before she knew it, Poppy had accumulated a multitude of orders.
"I remember sitting on the sofa one night, scribbling down what everyone wanted with their name, size, colour and contact details," reminisced Poppy.
After the first Covid lockdown, she was making clothing regularly for her eponymous label Poppy Voon, which specialises in organic cotton and linen womenswear. Poppy Voon garments are made-to-order, allowing customers to send in their colour and measurements.
Her label also prioritises using sustainable and ethical materials. This commitment arose during the Covid lockdowns, when Poppy watched numerous educational documentaries that exposed the unethical and harsh reality of fast fashion, particularly the environmental cost of producing conventional cotton. Moved by these investigations, she was determined to make a change in the industry and raise awareness.
"I've made a promise to my customers that we will never use conventional cotton or synthetics in our clothes. Instead, we stick to GOTS and OEKO-TEX Certified Organic Cotton and 100 percent linen grown in Canada, Australia, the United States and Belgium."
Poppy's commitment to using sustainable and ethical materials keeps her constantly inspired to create garments that people can wear with a clear conscience.
Her creative process usually begins with rough sketches of potential ideas, which are then made into mock-ups in collaboration with Poppy's seamstress. The next step for her is to gather feedback from friends and family, before bringing the idea to life.
"Talking to friends and family is always helpful as it gets you out of your own head and gives you a general idea of what people want. But it is also important not to take what they say too seriously, because you can end up going round and round in circles with ideas."
Following the recent launch of her sustainable footwear brand, General Aesthetic, Poppy is in the process of refining shoe styles using recycled leather. She hopes to launch a 100 percent vegan footwear collection, which is another work in progress.
As for Poppy Voon, she would like to get her clothing into retail stores within the next couple of years to give customers the retail experience and grow the label.
"Of course, I am always researching ways that the label can be the most sustainable, so my search for suppliers that can provide what I am looking for is never ending," added Poppy.
Her biggest advice for anyone interested in getting into the fashion industry is to "jump right in and go for it".
"People feel the need to know everything before starting their own thing but I'm afraid that's just not the way it works. In the past three years, I've made several mistakes but they have been the quickest way for me to learn."
"Take whatever knowledge you already have and apply it to something. Starting your own thing is not as hard as it seems and no one expects it to be perfect right off the bat."
