Ella Baché: BOLD Women - Gail Elliott

“Being in the modelling industry takes a lot of courage to make it a successful career. You’re told you’re too fat or too thin, too tall, too short, too well know or not well known enough. It can be lonely when you’re constantly flying from location to location, year after year, season after season but it’s also an amazing experience when you travel to the most beautiful places in the world and meet the most interesting and talented people in the business.

My first ‘bold move’ which I didn’t realise at the time, was leaving home at 17 years of age to live and model in Japan. I used to take ballet classes as a child and grew too tall to continue so my instructor suggested because of my height and slim build that I meet with a model agent. A few weeks later I was on a plane to Tokyo for a 2 month contract which turned out quite disastrous – I ended up working very long hours and not earning what I expected to earn. Once my contract ended, I changed agents in Tokyo, negotiated a contract that suited me and ended up staying in Tokyo for two years. From there at 19 years of age I moved to New York with a full modelling portfolio and started working almost immediately. I continued to live and work in New York for 24 years and that’s where I married my Australian husband.

Gail Elliott at Chanel Fitting with
Karl Lagerfeld & Linda Evangelista

Gail Elliott on Chanel Runway with Yasmin Le Bon

From there we moved to Sydney for a few years and seven years ago moved to beautiful Bali where we produce all our collections for our Little Joe Woman clothing line. Starting my own label and business came from my desire to express my learnings and feelings creatively and that’s when I decided to start our women’s clothing brand Little Joe Woman by Gail Elliott. My first designs were very simple and consisted of six silk slip dresses and six silk camisoles in six colours - pieces I wanted to wear but couldn’t find in stores. I loved the vintage slip dress look but the fabrics and fit were never good so I created my own.

Our dream to have a successful fashion business has become a reality through some good decisions, many mistakes and a lot of hard work. We feel very grateful to have created and own an established, luxurious, contemporary womenswear fashion brand designing and producing clothing that makes women look beautiful and feel confident about themselves.