OHARA

The talented and generous design sisters, Clare and Kash O’Hara from OHARA have designed the ultimate in affordable luxury nappy bags and are kindly donating $30 from every ‘Louise’ nappy/diaper bag purchased, to the Gidget Foundation.

‘The Louise’ luxury leather nappy bag is part of OHARA’s new ‘Modern Woman’ accessory collection which is a range that caters for today’s stylish and tech- savvy women.  ‘The Louise’ nappy bag has been designed for stylish Mums. The bag features  thermal insulated side pockets to safely store baby bottles or food, front pockets for easy access to dummies, snacks or even your mobile phone, and the bag also comes with a padded baby change mat.  This uniquely designed nappy bag, disguised as a handbag, also has a padded i-pad section in the middle of the bag which helps to reinforce the design concept of a handbag that women and Mother’s can use years after they have had their baby, which makes the bag extremely versatile.

A lot of market research was undertaken before launching the product and even though there are nappy bags in the market, OHARA is the first to design a luxury leather bag with an internal I-pad pocket. The ‘Louise’ luxury nappy bag with all its modern features fills a gap in the market for stylish modern women.

Clare O’Hara, one half of the design duo said “we started to put together some ideas for a nappy bag in 2008 and we surveyed over 200 women who have all had babies and asked them what they found useful and what they wanted in a nappy bag. A common theme was that a lot of the nappy bags in the market were tacky and daggy and often made from nylon or polyurethane  (fake imitation leather) which we like to call ‘pleather’. There were a few leather ones but they were expensive and still looked like a nappy bag.” “68% of the women we surveyed said they wouldn’t mind paying over $300 for a leather nappy bag if they liked the style of the bag and they knew it would last”.

Kash O’Hara added “Based on the survey results we developed a few ideas but it wasn’t until I had my first baby, Charlotte, in December 2010 that we could work out the final design.”

Having sufferers of depression in their own family, the O’Hara sisters, have been supporting the Gidget Foundation since 2009 but they wanted to do more to help the organisation which raises awareness of perinatal anxiety and depression. 

OHARA have now teamed up with the Gidget Foundation and will donate $30 from every ‘Louise’ nappy bag sold to their organisation. 

Spokesperson for the Gidget Foundation, Kylie Martin said “Their bags are absolutely divine and we are so thrilled with this wonderful and generous initiative.”

The Miss Nice silk top by OHARA appears in Bunker Hill Magazine.

Bunker Hill Magazine, September 2011- Cover

The 'Miss Nice' silk top by OHARA in white

OHARA OPEN ON OXFORD

OHARA 'Moonlight' collection and MacKenzie Mode dresses

OHARA have opened their doors on one of Australia’s most prominent shopping strips, Oxford Street, Paddington.  The stylish sisters behind the label, Kash and Clare O’Hara were very excited to open the pop-up boutique yesterday (8^th June 2011) as it is the next step for the label OHARA.

This has been an incredible year for the women’s wear label which started the year by showing their collection in New York as part of G’Day USA.  Kash and Clare O’Hara, were selected as one of the best 7 emerging fashion designers in Australia to show their range to a number of buyers and media in New York.  OHARA also won the Australian Wool Fashion Awards 2011, Ready to Wear which was announced in April for their ‘Moonlight’ Autumn/ Winter 2011 collection which will be sold in the pop-up boutique.  The collection includes dresses, jackets, tights, tops and the on trend cape made from wool, wool blends and silk, as well as felt hats, stockings, leather clutches and shoes to complete your winter wardrobe looks.

The label has been increasing their celebrity following from Australian personalities such as Lizzie Lovette, Jackie O and Kate Waterhouse to US celebrities including actress Electra Avellan, Singers Mya and Chloe Wang.  More recently the ‘Ray of Light’ dress from the ‘Moonlight’ collection was worn by Dannii Minogue on Australia’s Got Talent.

“We  are excited to open up our first store even if it is for one month, because we want to have another avenue for our customers to see our collection,” Clare said.

“We also feel our label will bring some fresh life into the top end of Oxford Street (near Robby Ingham) and offer the customer something new,” Kash said.  “We want to create a buzz and bring some excitement back into shopping on Oxford Street by making it a 1 month pop-up boutique,” Clare added.

OHARA shoes, Naomi Levi wallet & jewellery by it was me and Coco Liberace

As well as selling their award winning ‘Moonlight’ collection, the OHARA store will also be selling other handpicked Australian labels including the beautiful handmade ‘it was me’ resin jewellery, the elegant ‘Coco Liberace’ jewellery, the funky and functional MacKenzie Mode dresses, the luxurious leather accessories by Naomi Levi and shoes by Belanci. 

“We have met a lot of talented designers since setting up our label in 2007 and we wanted to give these labels an opportunity to shine and to show their designs to a new market” Kash said.

 The OHARA store, 416 Oxford Street, Paddington opened on Wednesday 8^th June and closes Wednesday 6^th July.

Cape Crusaders

The OHARA ‘Planet’ wool cape is featured in Shop til you Drop magazine (June 2011).

The OHARA 'Planet' Wool Cape

Shop til you Drop- June 2011 featuring the OHARA 'Planet' wool cape