Anna Tyrell is a content creator, wife and mother of 3 young boys who currently resides in Adelaide, Australia.
A fabric and design lover from a young age, Anna has a great appreciation for the special details in garments, like the beautiful prints or interesting silhouettes that make an appearance on her Instagram Account Fabric Dreamer.
“I am a woman who needs fashion in my life, it’s my language, it’s what inspires me and it’s how my brain visualises things. Give me a shower curtain, I will tell you what garment it needs to be made into. That sort of thing.”
A fashion Designer by Trade, Anna ran her own label for a good part of her 20’s.
“It gave me so much joy to see the entire process come to fruition and I enjoyed each step”
And although Anna chose to close her label when she began growing her family, she always kept a thread of fashion in her life. Wether it was managing social media for fashion retailers, buying for stores, styling for magazines or of course taking photos of herself in inspiring and beautiful outfits and sharing them with her followers.
“This was the most accessible way of having my own creative project, while I was either growing babies or birthing babies! It was fun.”
Originally, under the name of ‘Gypsys Find’, Anna’s platform shared content around travelling and discovering new places with her family.
“It was a great way for us as a family to explore new landscapes of each new city we lived”
Anna continued to run Gypsy’s Find, as more of a side hustle, with no real “direction”. But after having her third child, life just got a whole new level of busy, and so every project became more considered, seeing her hobby shift and evolve into a business that now develops services to well known fashion clients.
“As I’ve settled and defined what I’m about, I felt the need to have a name change, so here we are with Fabric Dreamer”
Feminine, elegant but also colourful and fun, Anna’s style will surely be an inspiration to anyone wanting to experiment with fashion, colour and pattern.
Read on below, for my interview with Anna, as we discuss her inspirations, dream projects, and some exciting things to come in the Fabric Dreamer space.
I love following you for your fashion and textile content. Can you tell us how your style has evolved over the years?
Thank you so much. You know, this is an interesting question, as most of my fashion style actually exists in my mind. I think this will make sense to a lot of women too, we have things we’d like to be wearing, or outfits we would love, but they’re not in our wardrobes.
So I think the basis of my personal style has always been the same, but the ways I can express that has been limited by finances or time or seasons, practicality etc. I tend to have fashion cravings that last for a few years.
When I was about 25, I was in a complete blush-with-raw-nude-leather phase. I just NEEDED to be wearing soft blushes, light weight fabrics, with barely there leather accessories. Then there was the phase, or probably decade really, where all I wore was a silk printed maxi dress or skirt, rain hail or shine, it was totally my signature. This has changed with me changing becoming a mother – me and long billowy shapes do not work well with pram wheels, skate parks, keeping up with my boys, so it’s really brought out more of my street style, tom boy style.
I have been having a strong craving for the past three winters, to simply wear retro patterned pants, and oversized textured knits. On reflection, I think my proportions of garments have remain the same (eg. a high waist always), as I’ve always been aware of what suits me, it’s really just the evolution of fabrications and colour palettes.
What’s involved in a typical day of content creation for you?
I’m still fine tuning the balance of having defined work hours, and then just needing to squeeze things in when I can, it really depends on how the kids are going.
Mostly, my shoots will happen on a weekend, so the week prior I receive garments from a brand, I plan the shoot, create a moodboard, steam the garments, and either get myself ready with hair and makeup or meet up on location with my model. We shoot, then it’s usually straight back to the studio to unpack the garments, load the images and select which ones I want to edit.
During the week I have a couple of days allocated in my studio for work. This is usually where I am spending most of my time editing and uploading files for clients, packing products back ready for collection or heading to the post office. I try and keep these days as balanced as possible, sometimes I can fit in a walk, sometimes I can fit in an appointment or a nice solitary coffee. They’re really short days, as like most Mum’s I’m just packing in what I can between drop off and pick up, which seems to go incredibly fast!
If I’m creating a reel, this is just one big fat mess on all surfaces, which takes forever to pack up, but I love these days, they’re really fun.
Tell us about some of the people in the industry who inspire you and why?
I have a soft spot for @ullajohnson selfies, there is something so vibrant about them, it rarely has her face in it, but I just love what I see. I think it’s her designs for one, they’re stunning, but how she styles them with her jewellery, the angle they’re taken. I’ve tried my best to take an ulla selfie, and it’s never turned out ha!
I often save @sezane reels for future inspiration, they are so classic and tasteful.
My gosh, I ADORE watching @katiejanehughes for makeup. I’m not a makeup girl, well a very late bloomer, but she’s just so entertaining and an absolutely skilled artist.
What are 3 of your favourite resources that you turn to for inspiration?
Pinterest, particularly creating a moodboard for a client and dreaming up all the things I’d love to stock in a store one day.
I’ve recently returned to buying magazines – mostly as a slow delightful pause in a day – and instagram.
I save a lot of reel ideas through instagram, or pose ideas. I need all the help I can get with poses!
What is your favourite part of content creating?
I really enjoy so many different parts as it takes all the little bits to create the final product.
I really enjoy thinking through a mood board and beginning to conceptualise the shoot. I’m slowly learning more about my camera, which makes shooting really enjoyable. I find when I am shooting a model, I can be somewhat in control of executing the vision in my mind. I can choose the angle, adjust the garment, but I don’t need to worry about my pose or how I’m holding my face. The model can do that. I think it’s when that point of planning and conceptualising, translates into finished work, that’s what I’m about. I also really enjoy creating reels. I love story telling – that’s something that brings me joy.
How would you describe your personal style?
Forever nervous of this question! I don’t know why that is, I think because I’m not a concise kinda girl!
I’m a sum of many parts, low key, minimal retro, bohemian, a little edgy, feminine, floral, undone.
What are your top 5 wardrobe essentials?
I’m someone that is inspired by my location, my season, so this changes a little but in a nutshell:
Summer: Printed linen mini dress, something pretty and flowing, denim cut offs, silk camisole, statement sunnies
Winter: Printed pants, Big statement knit, Jeans that fit like a glove, Boots that rock everything, A vintage or vintage-looking coat.
What is the best style advice you have ever received?
I love the quote by Iris Apfel “Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There’s no how-to road map to style. It’s about self expression and above all, attitude”
One of my passions, and I don’t spend alot of time on this topic on @fabric_dreamer but would love to in the future, is helping women understand their personal style. And this doesn’t need to fit into a three word tag line, this is about the things you’re naturally drawn to, what flatters you, where you go, what you do, what makes you feel alive and confident! If more people possessed this, and it is something to discover, I think shopping would be far less daunting for many women, they would just “know that they know that they know”.
Where is the best place to shop in Adelaide?
I would LOVE to explore more around Adelaide, but what I have enjoyed is:
Rundle Street East, you will find Zimmerman, Hannah Artwear and Morrison, Miss Gladys Sym Choon.
I also love to wander through PreLove in Hove from time to time, it’s a great second hand market.
Gilles Street Market is amazing, there’s some fabulous vintage stalls I love! I’ve been wanting to make it to Dulcie’s Bus for a little vintage session, I will one day.
Flourish is a must-do for the most eye popping colourful home and giftwear.
What would be your ultimate collaboration?
Oh wow. There’s so many. I would be pretty ecstatic to create something for Ulla Johnson.
Her prints and shapes remind me of balmy nights spent in Bali, where you’re dressing for cocktails but it’s low key glam and raw.
What’s next for you & Fabric Dreamer?
I have a million ideas, but for now, slow and steady, balancing my work with my family.
I have just started Fabric Dreamer on YouTube where I am chatting with inspiring women, and will continue this – I just love hearing the journey behind things, much like yourself!
I have plans to launch a new brand in the next twelve months, this is a super exciting project and hopefully will have more details later in the year. This will combine my love of textiles with skin and body.
Follow Anna & her amazing fashion over on Instagram at @fabric_dreamer