Australian Co-Designers and Creative Directors of Acler, Julia Ritorto and Kathryn Forth met when working under the same fashion house for competing brands. Their admiration for the other’s design style soon turned into a close friendship and they started catching up outside of hours regularly to learn from one another and experiment with new ideas, evolving quickly into the fashion house we see today.

Their design approach for Acler centres around bringing the craft back to its tactile roots. Each piece is hand draped by the designers, moving away from computer generated 2D design methods. This allows the garments to unfold on their own through open-minded fabric manipulation.

The powerhouse duo’s combined experience boasts over 20 years in design, working in Australia and the US for other brands such as Cameo, Sass & Bide and Stylestalker. Both have had their designs featured in Sydney Fashion Week, and received notable design awards from leading Australian fashion magazines.