Donna Cameron has advised countless people in Australia and in London on personal style and presentation for over a decade. Helping people articulate who they are, what messages they want to project, and showing them how to reflect this sartorially, is her speciality.
In 2017 The School of Life invited Donna to be a guest speaker at The Art of Getting Dressed, their only personal style workshop globally. In 2018 Donna was stylist for the groundbreaking and inclusive Access to Fashion runway event at Melbourne Fashion Week, exclusively featuring models with disability. In 2019 the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) invited Donna to present at their ‘Colour – education enrichment day’.
She was President of the Association of Image Consultants International (AICI) Melbourne Chapter from 2015-17, was Associate Editor of AICI GLOBAL magazine for three years and is a member for the Federation of Image Professionals International and of the Australian Fashion Council.
Donna hosts ‘Fashion by Foot’ tours with fellow image consultant, Briar Jasper-Batson.
Here’s Donna’s business story to date.
I’d been working in the corporate world for many years and found it less and less fulfilling. After a health scare I took stock and thought right: if you don’t do this you will regret it – big time! So, then I told as many people as I could about what I intended to do. I figured that way I’d be really embarrassed if I didn’t follow through!
Briar had been a carer for a long time and got to the point where she needed to do something for herself, so in a way our turning point were aligned.
Both Briar and I specialise in advising clients on personal style but we found there’s a demand for more than that. When we moved our studio into a warehouse space in Fitzroy, we were so impressed with what the designers we shared the space with were producing. Pair that with requests from friends and others in our industry wanting to see behind the scenes of independent fashion, and Fashion by Foot was born.
We’re both fully aware that life is not forever, and in our own unique ways and at different times we realised that if we didn’t jump in and try the entrepreneurial dream we would regret it.
Briar, having lived elsewhere in Australia helped me to see that Melbourne is truly unique in Australia, having clusters of independent designers creating quality product. I hadn’t realised before then just how special Melbourne is.
For the discerning and thinking fashionista, Fashion by Foot, is guided and personalised tours of Melbourne’s hidden fashion gems. Melbourne is well known as a leading fashion destination but it can be difficult to find the gems that give the city its reputation.
We introduce you to designers and, where possible, get behind-the-scenes to gain an understanding of how fashion and accessories are made.
We select only designers who produce unique, quality pieces you will not find elsewhere. These are special products that you can acquire on the day or place a bespoke order for, though all purchases are completely optional.
Throughout the tours we share our professional knowledge of personal style. You’ll emerge having enjoyed a very special day out in a relaxed environment and with new insight into what styles and colours work for you. A gourmet lunch and locally produced sparkling wine is included.
Juggling responsibilities and carving out proper time to devote to our business has been a challenge, particularly as we had not big financial backing. We both have some fairly serious family commitments around caring for people who have experienced illness and injury so we still need to balance these.
We love what we do. So, despite big and competing demands on our time and energy, we keep building.
Sharing similar experiences with our families means that we have lots of empathy for each other’s situation so we are great support for each other. We’re so fortunate to have met and bonded on that level. We also share an absolute lust for life and we’re constantly sharing a laugh and we ensure our fun quota is fulfilled!
