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Posted: 2023-07-01 19:10:17

From her apartment near the bustling La Bastille district of Paris, fashion designer Kym Ellery says she's trying to set the record straight.

"Just because you're in another country doesn't mean … you're running away from something," she says.

It's been four years since she called time on her Australian company, liquidating the business, and by doing so, leaving a string of unpaid creditors — including tailors, jewellery makers, fabric mills and modelling agencies — together owed $2.6 million dollars.

In 2019, Kym Ellery’s company Ellery Land went into liquidation owing $2.6 million to tailors, jewellery makers, fabric mills, and other businesses.()

These suppliers have watched on as Kym Ellery has gone on to success overseas, documenting her lavish lifestyle, while still selling to Australian customers online, from afar.

And in a recent exposé in The Monthly, these suppliers fought back, accusing her of taking advantage of their goodwill before they were ultimately hung out to dry.

In her first in-depth interview about the Australian collapse of Ellery Land Pty Ltd, her now-closed Australian company, Kym answers her critics and apologises to her suppliers, but also says business collapses are sometimes the price of working in the fashion industry.

She denies claims of financial misconduct, blaming delays in filing paperwork for a last-minute asset transfer to a related company in the weeks before her business collapsed.

The way Kym sees it, she's a victim too. She says media reporting on her financial woes just discourages other women from taking risks.

"It's interesting, why female journalists are focusing on these female entrepreneurs failing," she says.

"That's a really toxic situation that we can see now in our society … what we really should be talking about is how do you get a young woman like me to take risks. We want young, talented, creative, young people to be unafraid to take risks."

Kym says she's been hurt too and that in the world of high-end fashion, there's always a risk you'll end up a fashion victim.

"I'm not hiding from Ellery Land closing, and I don't expect anyone to feel sorry for me either."

Her former suppliers don't feel sorry for her. They just want their money.

'Flashy wrong things'

In a street-side workshop in the Bali capital of Denpasar, craftsmen are working on limited-edition jewellery, some hand-made, some with hi-tech laser welders.

This shopfront once supplied bold, contemporary designs to Kym Ellery's Australian business. Suppliers like this are the backbone of the fashion industry.

The designer behind the jewellery is a New Zealander we will call Jenny. He wants his name protected, because in the close-knit fashion world, speaking out to the press isn't a good look.

The collapse of Kym Ellery's Australian operations in April 2019 left the Balinese factory that produces his pieces $193,000 out of pocket.

A collection of Jenny's designs.()

Jenny didn't see it coming but looking back, he wonders whether he should have.

"She spent a lot of money on flashy wrong things, promoting her brand without paying … the people that are actually making the product for her."

Jenny reckons he's been around long enough to understand that failure is part of the fashion game.

He describes an industry that runs on goodwill. Good relationships can survive and outlast late payments and cash flow crunches.

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