Carly Stirling is the senior Designer at Silent Arrow, lingerie for women who are unafraid to be seen and is made for women by women. Created by Melbourne based 90’s street wear turned lingerie designer Kelly Barrett, Silent Arrow is made for women, by women. Like you, we’re done with the trade off between feeling hot and feeling comfortable. A provocative play on the b-girl style of our early beginnings, we design using flexible, high quality microfiber and soft, flirty mesh. Our form is bold, our vibe is fierce and our design team has sketched literally millions of your faithful smalls so we know how to make you feel fucking amazing. We caught up with Carly about her work with the brand.
Burgundy Fox: Tell us about your work with Silent Arrow. What is it like to be a Senior Designer at Silent Arrow?
Carly Stirling: Designing for Silent Arrow allows me to use so many of my skills. I have a background in retail, product development, garment technology and graphic design, and I get to learn more every day! I know that sounds insane; I’m only 29 and started working in the fashion industry when I was 15, then full time at 19 after graduating from a Fashion School in Melbourne, Australia.
There is so much involved in the day-to-day. I go from trend analysis to design & development, choosing fabrics, fitting bras and knickers, working on production schedules and then on to creating and launching products on the website. I get to be involved with social media and marketing as well as photoshoots and the more visually creative side of the brand. Every day is full of problem solving and brainstorming which is challenging but can be pretty fun. It’s a place of ideas, innovation and showing creativity.
We recently did a trade show in New York where we got to network with hundreds of amazing women who are also working in lingerie. This is where I met Leslie from Burgundy Fox.
Silent Arrow, still being a new label, has allowed me to have an amazing creative outlet, more so than any other brand I’ve worked on. Our Founder and Creative Director, Kelly Barrett, has taught me a lot about the industry since we first met more than 10 years ago.
The majority of my work is on private labelling for other brands which can be pretty restrictive, so when Silent Arrow was born it was an amazing opportunity to do something daring, break rules and push limits. There is no idea that’s too extreme, we want to push boundaries.