Meet our designer: Alyse Wright
8 Oct 2023
Author: SportscraftMarketing
Sportscraft designer Alyse Wright speaks on her career in fashion, embracing the Australian lifestyle, and designing the exclusive new season collection.
Sportscraft Womenswear designer Alyse Wright has had an illustrious career, culminating in work for one of Australia’s most loved brands. The granddaughter of a seamstress, today Alyse designs for the unique Australian lifestyle, with exclusive prints, premium fabrics, and effortless silhouettes.
Get to Know our Designer
Inspired by her family, Alyse Wright loved fashion from a young age. She says, “I always loved watching my mum put outfits together for occasions. My nanna was a seamstress, and I would often ask her to help me make things for nights out.”
Wright worked at a small Helensburgh boutique for five years, and adored styling the customers. This love for styling led her to university, where she completed a Bachelor of Design, majoring in fashion.
She says, “I landed my first job in the industry as a sample cutter and design assistant working for a small Australian designer brand. I loved getting my hands dirty at the cutting table.”
Alyse Meets Sportscraft
Wright says, “I’ve now worked at Sportscraft as part of the design team for seven years … the team are like family, and I’ve shared so many life milestones with them.” She explains what Sportscraft means to her, “It’s the lifestyle element of the brand. Our founder Wolf Bardas said it was about life with no boundaries – activity, adventure, salty seas, smell of the bush, wind and surf, the outdoor lifestyle.”
"IN AUSTRALIA, THE OUTDOORS IS WHERE LIFE HAPPENS, AND I LOVE THAT SPORTSCRAFT CREATES CLOTHES TO BE PART OF THAT LIFESTYLE."
Wright is a big believer in the Australian lifestyle. When she’s not designing, she’s outdoors. The community this fosters has led to some of the most important relationships in her life. Wright says, “The outdoors, especially the ocean, is where I find calm and can rejuvenate. It’s a great source of inspiration.”
Alyse’s Pick for the Season
Sportscraft has long been famous for vibrant colours and exclusive prints. This season is no exception, with a collection inspired by travel and exploration. The Batik Print, a vivid and considered design of which Wright is especially proud.
“From European summers to the Aussie coastline, the destination is different for every family, but the feeling of an adventure and the creation of memories is the same.”
Wright says, “Our print designer created Batik exclusively for Sportscraft in two colours – a vibrant Campari orange and classic navy.” Batik features “hand-sketched, ethnic-inspired marks, exaggerated and warped into an easy-to-wear print for all occasions.”
Wright’s Most Loved Fabric
Batik is printed on Sportscraft’s most-loved Rosa linen. Wright says, “What makes Rosa special is that it is mostly linen, but we’ve blended the linen with viscose and elastane. The viscose gives the linen a beautiful drapey finish and the added elastane gives that bit of stretch needed for comfort, especially in pants and blazers.”
Like most of Sportscraft’s linen, Rosa is woven from flax yarn that originates in the European flax belt, a coastal band stretching from Northern France through to Belgium and the Netherlands. Sportscraft uses mostly linen grown in Western Europe, because it is majority rain-fed, free from genetic modification and cultivated without heavy use of fertiliser and pesticides. Linen fibres are thicker and longer than cotton, which gives the material its valued strength and longevity.
Wright says, “Our focus on quality and longevity has always been key … we are striving to be ageless. I’m excited to be part of the Sportscraft journey, and curious to see where we can take this brand in the future as we share our values with a new generation of shoppers.”
