Based in Western Australia, Luka Rey is a thoughtful swimwear label bringing a refreshing range and perspective to the world of swim. After admiring the brand from afar and chatting with Luka online, Holly had the chance to finally meet Luka at a Pop Up at Post Sole Shop (formally Ode Collective) in 2022. Two years on and Luka Rey pieces can be seen scattered through HB Archive imagery. Holly and Luka recorded a Pocket Conversation in early December before heading over to their mutual stockist Post Sole Shop together.
*Talking about emailing*
HB: Do you work from home as well?
LR: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So mine is a loft space above the house.
HB: So good! How did you get your machines up?
LR: Um, we just carried them up there. I didn't think it would work...
HB: How many machines? Three?
LR: Yeah, cover stitch, four thread, and a flat bed.
HB: Flat bed?
LR: Just a straight stitch.
HB: Aah! I love the ones I use, I've had the same machine since I was like 19.
LR: Wow! I got my straight stitch for my 30th, so it's very sentimental.
HB: What do you sew with it? Do you use it for your swimwear?
LR: Mostly labels and when I attach hardware, I need to straight stitch it in.
HB: With just a ball point needle?
LR: Yes, but most is done on the overlocker and cover-stitch.
HB: Do you like working with jersey? Do you still call it jersey if it's swim?
LR: Not exactly, I mean, I just call it stretch. But I work with Recycled Nylons.
HB: Gosh, I need a brush up on my fabric knowledge!
LR: I actually taught that last year –
HB: Ohh! That's your other job - teaching!
LR: Which I love. It's really great.
HB: Which school?
LR: I teach at a University in Perth, the same place I did my Bachelor actually, then I went on to do shoemaking at RMIT.
HB: Ah, that was one of my questions - well, it was, “how did you get into swimwear?” Because I knew you worked first at Post Sole.
LR: Yeah. So I went to TAFE when I was, like, 17? Well, finished high school, went straight to TAFE.
*Conversation trails off onto talking about age, birthdays, star signs, reasoning things by the moon*
HB: Do you listen to podcasts as you're sewing?
LR: I do, yeah, I often listen to Process.
HB: I love Process too, I find it so inspiring. The first one I listened to was with Baina.
LR: That was what got me in. That was really good.
HB: Do you listen to any music?
LR: Yeah, I’m trying to listen to more music.
HB: I feel the same. I used to listen exclusively to music. Then when I moved in here, I stopped really listening to anything.
LR: Yeah, I also quite like silent work. I've been a little bit more conscious about what I'm consuming across the board lately, whether it's what magazines or I just went through a big television phase where I was watching The Sopranos for the first time - I was so hooked and I loved it so much and then was watching the Wire, both fantastic shows. But I don't know, it was addictive and it was too much television.
HB: Are you just thinking about it as you sew?!
LR: Yes but also, every night, just wanting to watch it - whereas now I've stepped back from that, it’s great every now and then, but I need to spend my evenings pursuing other interests also. I’ve been getting back into reading and being a little bit more mindful about the types of podcasts I'm listening to. I’ve been trying to weave more music in, because I feel like there's just this mass of information that I’m consuming. It's just overloading us.
HB: Yeah, I feel this, which is why I try to start the morning with no music. I journal, then I do a 10 minute meditation, but I don't leave the house. I think it's more just to give myself a routine.
LR: I feel like having some kind of morning routine is definitely really helpful. I just don't really stick to it.
HB: So what are you doing now? You're full time in the studio because the uni year has finished?
LR: Yes, so the teaching semester is done.
HB: That’s such good timing!
LR: Yeah, it's great, but it’s hard to do [get the timing right]. Do you think far ahead with your business?
HB: This is the first year I am because Zoe has worked with me for five or so years now, and she asked me a few years ago, “what do you want for your next year?” And I was like "I don't know", but this year I actually do know what I want - I want to stick to days off. To never have to chase my tail and do any big, crazy blackout work-all-the-time period.
LR: Yeah.
HB: I don't know, I mean, I think ahead, but how much [as a sole trader] can you think ahead?
LR: There's so much pressure to think ahead when you have a business, everything changes. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, and like, how do you balance the other job? And then what becomes more important?
HB: Yeah, it can shift though. It can change depending on what your value with each thing is [in the moment].
LR: Well, right now the focus is on swim, and the balance is really great, but for some reason it feels like it's too good to be a long term thing.
HB: How long have you done it for?
LR: I've been teaching for maybe two plus years, and I've had a brand for three years. So I’ve been doing both for almost the whole time. Balancing the academic work with such a seasonal brand is difficult at times, it's hard for me to get the same amount of sales through the middle of the year.
HB: We need to find you an international stockist!
LR: That's what I actually need to do, which is not that impossible. But it's also the making. How do you go with that?
HB: Making?
LR: Yeah, yeah.
HB: Um, this coming year I want to do a lot less. I always say “I want to stay small. I don't want to do this much again”. But the pressure of the sales really affects me. I just need to cut it down. Because it is overwhelming me. I've been questioning myself and comparing myself to other brands, or thinking “well, if there was someone who was chipping in with rent, or if I moved further away” but I live here. This is where all my friends are.
LR: This is where your life is.
HB: Right! I don't know how I got into that. What were we talking about?
LR: Doing all the making.
HB: Yes! Because I do the pre orders and I only want to stay open for max four or five days a month. I love making but I don't want it to, like, - I feel guilty when I'm not doing it.
LR: I find that the other things take so much more time than you imagine, I just feel like I'm getting so swept into the making that I have no time to do any of the other stuff. And, I wish I had more time to think about some kind of social media strategy, or try to get more stockists, or being a little bit more clever with marketing but I just don't think about any of that stuff. There's the making and the designing.
HB: It’s so hard to balance! I wanted to ask you a question … I work with structured woven fabrics, because I get frustrated with the slinkiness of knitwear and Jersey. A few years ago. I made 40 something merino skivvies, and I just remember being so relieved when I went back to something with structure. Actually - would you sew merino t-shirts?
LR: Yeah, totally!
HB: Ooh okay, good to know! Anyway, it seems like you enjoy a challenge, because you would be working with fine like silks in bridal and other -
LR: – When I was in bridal, I wasn't really working as a maker. I was managing production and overseeing technical operations with the factories. I did a little bit of light making here and there, but I'm not really that capable of handling silk in the same way I can other fabrics. I actually prefer working with stretch, and my first job was working with stretch when I came out of TAFE. That's how I learnt how to handle it. I was working in this place - it’s actually hilarious - I got a job in Cairns because I went to high school there, and there was this very old school, small Queensland style shop on the beach. It was a custom swimwear shop that used to make custom designs or custom fits for people, mostly tourists.
HB: Oh my god, that's crazy! So you'd measure them up?
LR: It was really cool. Yeah, you’d measure them up. it was probably not any bigger than this [room]. It was a proper studio and shop front across from the beach. So I learned to sew stretch fabrics there, and that, I suppose, was my first real job. I just feel comfortable with stretch from that experience, and I also like that it's much faster.
HB: Yeah, yeah, that's true. Smaller pieces.
LR: It was kind of a strategic decision to focus on swimwear because of this. And also because I had to move back to WA during COVID and swim made sense for the climate.
HB: So you haven't been back in Perth that long, really?
LR: I've been back for maybe four years.
HB: How long were you living here [in Melbourne] for?
LR: Five years. I went back to WA at the end of 2020. And there's no industry in Perth. I was unsure how I would get a job.
HB: How is there no industry but there's the school?!
LR: Great question. There used to be a small industry, but it doesn't really exist anymore. There used to be places you could do internships and now there's very little, really. So I started my own business, and the teaching has been complimentary to this.
HB: I feel like, even though Melbourne is big, there's still not the job opportunities. I've never had a full-time job working for someone else in the clothing industry. I tried when I first finished uni, and I interned for free for years and then freelanced while I was doing HB. I don't know if it's changed very much. I remember aside from a couple of local brands there wasn’t really anywhere that offered what I wanted to do. I didn't want to just work somewhere like Forever New.
LR: I know. The conglomerates.
HB: We were being taught to do spec sheets to send to China. So I didn't want to do that. - The other day I actually had someone email me asking if they could have a job!
LR: Oh, that's so nice.
HB: I don’t have any capacity, and I just feel like there's nothing here [in Melbourne]. I can't even point anyone anywhere.
LR: Yeah, it's hard, hey. It definitely feels like there's more here compared to Perth, but I know what you mean. It took me years to get a job here when I was living here.
HB: Was Post Sole your first job here?
LR: No, I worked in production for A-ESQUE and then I worked at Post Sole Studio, and The Social Studio.
HB: I feel like they’re [The Social Studio] a great example of the way a factory can work. I got some skivvies made with them and then these Market Bags as well.
LR: Oh, cool. That's so great.
*Luka and Holly gather their things to walk and meet Breeze and Yoshi at Post Sole Shop*
This conversation was recorded in Holly's home studio. 10th of December, 2024.
Find Luka Rey swimwear on instagram and at lukarey.com.au.
