KAROLINA BORKOVIC

MUM | PARTNER | FASHION DESIGNER | STYLIST | RETAIL CONSULTANT | WOMENS ADVOCATE | HEALTH & FITNESS AMBASSADOR

What are your different identities?

- Mum

- Partner

- Fashion Designer

- Stylist

- Retail Consultant

- Womens Advocate

- Health & Fitness Ambassador

Who is Keeping up with Karolina?

A crazy biatch?.. no seriously.. I guess Keeping up with Karolina at its core is really an expression of my desire to reach out into the world, and into the limitless possibilities and connections out there.  It’s a signal out into the universe.. like the lonely ‘bleep’ of a Voyager spacecraft to distant planets.  It’s all about connection isn’t it, and it’s a connection where my visual, social and fashion self has the chance to dance around, wave my arms up and down and say ‘hey I’m over here.. and I want to express this pure part of myself and say hi!”

Tell us something about Karolina that we don’t know?

I guess like all of us out there on social media, the chance to reach out, be vivacious, funny and connected to the zeitgeist is probably a reaction to a deep private part of ourselves.  There’s the social media side of us.. and then there’s the deeply private side of us that only our partners and children get to see.  It’s not that either side is more ‘true’ than the other.. but rather I don’t think you can be ‘out there’ without a deeply private side fueling things internally… you need your Yin to balance your Yang?

Congratulations on the launch of your new label. What was the motivation behind this?

Thanks!  My motivation certainly seems not have been to sit around and let it happen.. its taken so much hard work!  Not that I didn’t expect that at the start… rather I think if we didn’t kind of have a blindness to the reality of how much work things are.. then we would never do anything!  Creating is at its heart a force that requires energy.. to bring something new into the world.. and that expression becomes ‘us’ in a real way.  I want to bring pretty things into the world.. my pretty things.. that help women feel good and find their own expression.

What has been your biggest lesson in life you have learnt so far?

Perhaps the biggest lesson is that the lessons never end?  There’s no simple end point to learning and growing.. we don’t just reach that seat on the garden bench were we get to say ‘well that’s that then!’.. but at the same time, knowing that the true thing that makes it all worthwhile is being grateful.. for it ALL!  You have to have that awareness of gratitude otherwise your ambition becomes an endless fruitless search for ‘more’.  Tempering ambition with gratitude helps keep us centered and on track.

What advice would you give to women who want to start a business but are too afraid?

My advice?  That there’s really no magic to running a business.. there’s no one out there that ‘owns’ all the customers…if you provide the right product and experience they will come to you.  You don’t really have to ‘compete’ against anyone else.. and be intimidated by other businesses that have been around for a while.  You have just as much right to be there as anyone.. and if you have done your research and keep the customer front and center you’ll always do ok.