Karla Spetic launched her namesake label in 2008 at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, just two years after graduating from the Sydney Fashion Design Studio. The Croatian-born, Sydney-based designer confesses to being her own harshest critic and, while she is never truly satisfied with a collection, that doesn’t mean others aren’t utterly delighted. Regarded as pretty and playful, modern and minimalist, her pieces are worn all over the world with 24 stockists in Australia and four in New York, Dubai, Auckland and Jakarta. In 2009 she was nominated as a finalist in the Best Up and Coming Designer category in the Prix de Marie Claire awards. Never one to let success go to her head, Karla is still genuinely chuffed when she sees someone in the street wearing her garments.

“It’s so weird; it’s what I’ve made, what I’ve been thinking about – it’s so personal,” Karla Spetic explains of the experience of seeing her garments worn on the street. But when asked to describe her style, Karla apologises and notes she can’t. “I’m actually still trying to figure out my style,” she starts. “I do like clean things; I like simplicity. My pieces aren’t complicated.” This unfussy design aesthetic mimics her approach to life. Karla doesn’t believe in planning, but rather prefers to get on with things. She comes across as energetic and driven, in a refreshing, self-effacing way. This attitude no doubt helped her to launch her namesake label from scratch in 2008.

At the time, she’d spent 18 months helping to run The Graduate store in Sydney’s The Strand Arcade with five other gung-ho graduates from the Sydney Fashion Design Studio. The experience gave her invaluable insight into running a retail business and in her spare time she created “bits and pieces” to sell on the racks.

When an opportunity arose to apply for a spot in the 2008 Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, Karla jumped at it. “I just went into it and had a shot. I don’t know what I was thinking … I really threw myself in the deep end.”

Karla submitted an application with a portfolio of the ad hoc pieces she’d crafted for the graduate store. “It certainly wasn’t a proper label but I think the judges wanted to see that you wanted to work in fashion, not just for fun or to be famous but because this is what you love and you want to make a career out of it.” Karla must have impressed them, because she scored a solo show.

“During the show I was numb, I was so nervous,” she recalls.“I was thinking: ‘I’m actually doing this – what am I thinking? All these people have come to see my show and I’m not happy with what I’ve done at all!’” The industry feedback was glowing and her stockist list quickly grew – not just at home but also internationally.

Karla knew at high school that she wanted to make clothes for a living, but her childhood dream wasn’t so career-minded. “When I was little my dream was for the war to end in Croatia. That’s what I remember because my childhood years were spent in Croatia before the war, and after the war I realised I didn’t have a childhood at all. It was a nightmare. I just wanted to live in a happy place.”

An only child, Karla was seven when the war of independence broke out in Croatia. Her family moved to Germany and then returned to Croatia while they planned their next steps. They arrived as refugees in Australia in 1993. Karla was 10.

“I think I was numb,” she recalls of the big move. “I was going to the other side of the world and everything was so different – the culture, the mentality, the smells and sounds, everything. I remember when we landed in Brisbane there was that whole tropical feel. There were parrots flying everywhere! In Croatia, you don’t have parrots flying around or living outside a cage, so I was shocked. I thought, what is this place? There are parrots everywhere. And it’s so humid!” she laughs.

Of course the shock wore off over time and Karla now calls Australia home. “I’ve lived here most of my life, so now I feel this is my home more than Croatia but, in saying that, when I go back there are so many smells and memories that come back to me. My whole family is back there so I feel that’s where I belong as well … I think I’m lucky; I have two amazing homes.”

Karla completed high school in Nambour and enrolled in a two-year fashion course at the Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE. There she learnt the basics of sewing and pattern making. “It was really helpful but then I realised that I couldn’t stay living on the Sunshine Coast because I was really bored; I just wasn’t inspired.” Karla moved to Sydney and applied for different fashion courses; she was accepted into the TAFE’s esteemed Sydney Fashion Design Studio. “I was so excited but it didn’t dawn on me until I went into my first class just how lucky I was and how hard it was to get in. There were minimum spaces available. So when you least expect it, good things happen.”

Karla doesn’t name drop, but the TAFE website notes that famous alumni include Akira Isogawa, Alex Perry, Wayne Cooper, Nicky Zimmermann, Lisa Ho, Michelle Jank, Dion Lee and Bianca Spender.

She says her greatest challenge every season is producing a collection. But even when times get tough, Karla looks forward. “I never ever consider giving up,” she states emphatically. “Sure, it gets hard when things go wrong… but things always work out in the end. I love what I do and I couldn’t see myself doing anything else, so I never think of giving up when I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am now. I don’t want to throw it all away … I’m motivated because I’m always learning something new and I have creative freedom. It’s so exciting.”

Karla doesn’t search for design inspiration like she would a lost earring. “I find it’s more organic than that. I guess I look to my surroundings. For my autumn and winter collection this year, I found beauty in the old terrace buildings and their unusual colour combinations. I wanted to capture what I find beautiful – things we don’t really see that are right in front of us.” Photographic prints have begun to feature in her work, so her customers can “wear what we see”.

Of what she has yet to achieve with her work, Karla notes “longevity” is as important as improving as a designer. Her advice to others starting out is to trust your gut instinct. “Just do what you feel is right and be really persistent and patient,” she urges. “And don’t have too many expectations. Do it because you love it, otherwise it’s a waste of time.”

Karla says she finds peace when ideas are running through her head. “I don’t draw my designs. It would make it so much easier if I did sketch but then I get bored with it and don’t want to look at it anymore,” she laughs. “I make a conscious decision to keep everything jumbled in my head so I never know what’s going to come out or how it will end up looking. So when things come to life – with my colours and prints and shapes and patterns draped on a dummy – that’s when I find peace; when I feel that satisfaction. And I feel really happy about that.”