WORKING LUNCH WITH ROS

LIA TSIMOS – MOSS & SPY

Welcome to our regular feature where it’s a case of “I’ll have what you’re having” on an industrial scale as our Features Editor Ros Reines breaks bread with local Aussie business founders at their place of work. Yes, we’re setting foot into the lunchrooms of the nation’s best and brightest.

Sydney’s Surry Hills was once the heart of the rag trade where the hum of sewing machines competed with the steady flow of traffic through the twisty streets.

Then labels increasingly started manufacturing overseas and moved away as the rents rose and the cost of production skyrocketed. Then the star chefs moved in, transforming those cutting rooms into chic restaurants. Forget the spaghetti straps, it was all about the Spaghettino Freddo.

So, I’m absolutely thrilled when the founder and designer of homegrown fashion label, Moss & Spy, Lia Tsimos, agrees to a working lunch and explains that she’s shifted her business to Surry Hills to ensure everything is made locally.

You can’t miss Moss & Spy’s headquarters just off Foveaux Street as there’s a giant sign and the diminutive Lia herself in a city shorts suit and gold trainers having an animated conversation with a colleague outside.

Lia leads the way up a flight of stairs to a real cutting room filled with women working away and my heart fills with joy. Maybe I really have stepped back in time. It’s like a scene from Mrs Harris Goes To Paris.

Finding this place, says Lia, required a mind shift.

“We were working out of cramped headquarters in Woollahra with the cutting room in Marrickville where the rent was less expensive,” she explains. “But after the COVID lockdown, the business was doing well, so I decided I needed more space.

“I’m a real believer in the power of visualisation and I just put it out there that I wanted to be in Surry Hills as I was sick of battling though traffic. I did wonder though if there was anything left and if I could afford it?”

Sure enough, out of the blue, she found this building – a former dance studio with a space long enough to accommodate the full length of the cutting room table, which was critical.

What’s more, Lia could have her own office with an ensuite, almost unheard of in rag trade headquarters.

This den of hers is pretty impressive with several racks of clothes, swatches of fabric, a big computer screen and a large marble desk, which is where we will have lunch. There’s also a full-length mirror and remnants of dance hooks still embedded in the walls.

“I’ve ordered in from Uber Eats,” says Lia, who has a brightness and a warmth about her that immediately draws people in.

“I hope you’re hungry?”

An assistant soon walks in with two containers from Fishbowl on a couple of plates. I’m almost overcome by the intoxicating aromatic aroma of the poke bowl when I lift off my lid. There’s layers and layers of deliciousness. You can keep your Spaghettini Freddo, this is really living.

Lia, who has been in Surry Hills for just two years, is a self-confessed perfectionist, which is why she says that it wouldn’t suit her to manufacture overseas.

“You waste too much time going back and forth,” she explains. “I know what I’d be like, it’s just not worth it to save some money here and there. Besides most people order too much and then they have to go on sale.

“Our makers are like our family. I’ve got makers that I have worked with for 25 years,” she says with a smile.

She also points out that her stock returns are “minimal because the quality is perfect” in this brand known for beautiful fabrics and occasion wear.

Moss & Spy have a shop in Sydney and Melbourne, an online store and a thriving wholesale business. David Jones recently put one of the beautifully cut Moss & Spy bias dresses on the cover of their catalogue, which is where I saw it and thought of Lia.

There’s several reasons for the label’s success in the fashion industry where labels open and close like zippers: it’s the attention to detail, the stunning, tactile fabrics, an excellent range of sizes that are true to size and it also suits everyone young, and well, less young.

“Fashion isn’t about age, it’s about elegance,” says Lia. “I mean, who can wear a backless beyond 20?” (This is good to hear, I’d thought I was the only one keeping my shoulder blades under wraps).

“We do sizes from 8 to 16 but the one that sells out first is the size 16 because I know how to make clothes to flatter people’s bodies.”

Her tribe is high powered business women, who don’t have the time to shop for clothes but know they can always rely on her label to see them right.

Lia herself, who has a Greek background, is ageless. Her long hair hugs her face with a fringe and her makeup is minimal. She can totally pull off her Moss & Spy city shorts suit.

Lia usually has lunch at her desk. Not a sandwich but a salad with some protein. Something to sustain her.

“I don’t snack but I have breakfast, lunch and dinner because my brain stops working if I’m not fed. Every night I cook something fresh, usually chicken or fish because I don’t eat meat and I’ve stopped dairy.”

Her other major lifestyle rule is never taking work home.

“The days are so full and I need to be at my optimum, so I won’t do it. I let it wait until the next day.”

Lia has just finished the Moss & Spy autumn winter collection two weeks ago.

“I don’t wear other products, no matter where it comes from, even if it’s a Valentino, it’s probably not as good as my own label,” she boasts.

She also believes that her own collection of extravagant shoes and handbags at home are like her collections – forever pieces. And just like Lia Tsimos herself, they will never go out of fashion.

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