What is your name?
Gail Thompson
What do you do for a living?
Designer and Owner of THOMPSON Clothing
How did you get to that for a living?
Single mum designed and sold children’s clothing
If you weren’t doing that what would you be doing?
Design 3 days per week and the rest play with my grand babies
What is your favourite colour?
All colours because combined they become Black
What do you like to eat?
Everything except Pasta
What is your favourite movie?
Devil Wears Prada and Steel Magnolias ask my girls
What are the website(s) you visit most often?
Not Many
What did you do in the past four weeks?
Opened a new store in South Perth
What are you doing next four weeks?
Designing my Spring Collection
If I were a ‘Genie’ what would you ask of me?
Nothing my life is Good
I first met Taryn (the blond in the top photo), Gail’s daughter, when Head Studio first opened in King Street in 2009. That was my pre-dread lock era! Ah, time flies. I then finally got to meet her fashion designer mother earlier this year when I got to help her with autumn collection. The garments you see in the website, Merchandised, are essentially all her designs. Ah yes, FuMoso is her company name (trading as Thompson Clothing). Despite the fact that she could possibly retire – there’s more than enough encouragement in the family – and that fashion retail is tougher than ever, she is not slowing down. I’m definitely not in the ‘Gail to retire’ camp. I’m actually in the ‘Gail to keep going’ side. I love what she does with patterns. That’s why I built a website to sell her garments.
Thompson Clothing has been around for more than a decade in case you haven’t heard the name before. The biggest thing for me – what compelled me to build an online store with her garments – was the fact that all her clothes are made right here in Perth. And the manufacturer (a team of seamstresses?) only works for Thompson Clothing.
Seriously, I wonder sometimes why and how things happen the way they do. I could have met Gail six years ago but I did not. Perhaps, back then she would have been too busy running her business which would have been running at a much larger in scale. Thompson Clothing is changing. Gail has been streamlining her designs that are more HER and OTHERS. This time, she is doing it for her.
Her designs resonate with me and that’s why I wear a lot of her stuff these days. If you’d like to help her to continue her creative work – instead of getting into retirement – head over to her new store in South Perth. FuMoso is open from Wednesday till Saturday.
