By Gaynor Alder

Shelley Craft has recently launched an exciting new fashion app, Hanger Nation. I met with her at The Olsen Hotel in Melbourne to get the lowdown on her latest project, her inspirations and just how she manages to approach life with such effortless elegance and enduring effervescence.

As a busy media personality who splits her time between filming in Melbourne and living in Byron Bay with her husband and daughter Milla, it’s no surprise that Shelley like many other modern woman can sometimes feel time poor and struggle to find the time to shop. This combined with living in a town that isn’t exactly brimming with stores with dresses to wear on the red carpet, means Shelley does most of her shopping online.

Additionally, many stores only stock certain pieces from a designer’s range, forcing fashionistas to wear out the bottoms of their ballet flats, traipsing from one store to another longingly lusting after the latest look. Shelley concurs and adds, “I’d often find a piece in a boutique that I’d really love, and then wonder if the collection had a matching pair of pants or skirt in the same fabric?”

But after running her manicured nails over her keyboard for hours, hopping from one site to another, she started to wonder why there wasn’t an online directory that listed all the designers’ latest collections in the one spot? And so Hanger Nation was born. Snaps to her, we say.

A “lookbook bookmark”, Hanger Nation showcases designers’ complete collections in all size ranges, and all from the comfort of your chaise lounge. You can either purchase it from their online store or ascertain exactly where it’s located. No more blisters born of committing footwear felonies such as wearing heels whilst endlessly pounding the pavements desperately seeking a new dress.

With a heavy focus on iconic Australian designers including Fleur Wood and Arthur Galan, HN also showcases up and coming designers to keep your peepers peeled for. Shelley is currently swooning over Mister Zimi.

“Mister Zimi is an organic evolution of husband and wife team Zoe and Jimi, who took a trip to Bali and decided to get some leather jackets made. The made to measure jackets landed on their hotel doorstep addressed to ‘Mr Zimi’ and so the seed was planted. Returning home, their friends and family clamoured over her jacket, and soon friends of friends wanted to know more. They packed up their suitcases and bought a one way ticket to Bali, returning to the tropical island, inspired to design bikinis, bags and purses. The rest as they say is history.”

I asked Shelley about the evolution of her personal style, and naturally in front of the cameras it’s been dictated by the shows she’s worked on. From cutesy colourful clothes on Saturday Disney, to trading in the heels and cocktail chic of Funniest Home Videos for cargos and steel cap boots on The Great Outdoors and The Block.

When not working, she’d like to think of herself as understated elegance with an edge of rock chick. Shelley spoke of Grace Kelly as one of her style icons, and as she did I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between herself and the Princess – a fun loving girl with a classic elegance who was a natural in front of the camera.

21 weeks pregnant and having just stepped off the plane from Sydney, with back to back meetings until being due on set later in the afternoon, I wondered how she manages to take it all in her stride whilst continually radiating grace and emanating beauty from within. It seems love, passion, and a thirst for excitement are her driving forces. Overflowing with gratitude, she gushed about her supportive husband and family. She describes having Milla as the most incredible experience of her life, and she was never going to sacrifice the miracle of motherhood for her career.

Her beloved Byron Bay is also close to her heart, and it’s no surprise that she decided to get married there. After popping the question of marriage, her husband proposed another question. “Why aren’t we living here?” Their idyllic beach side lifestyle brings balance to their busy lifestyles, but Shelley says that it’s really more about the projects that they both work on harmonically converging as an organic extension of who they are as a couple. But even her husband knows not to bother her between 4:30 and 5:30 during her daily fix of Bold and the Beautiful.

As a teenager she wanted to be an equestrian rider or an Olympic skier, but by the time she left school she was eying off a career as an actress. She took a gap year and accepted a job at Movie World, where she was offered the opportunity to do work experience in the studio. A dream career trajectory followed, with a Production Assistant role on the Disney show before auditioning for the role of host. And it’s been all lights, camera, action ever since. 17 fabulous years later and she’s shopping for a frock for her 17th Logies.

When asked what success means to her, Shelley unequivocally responded with one simple word. Happiness. She wholeheartedly believes that you should find out what makes you happy and follow that. She acknowledges that career changes can be daunting, but instead of relating to life trapped by social limitations you should see the world as your oyster. “Why should dreams only come true in the movies?”

She’s also a passionate supporter of the sisterhood, and surrounds herself with supportive people who celebrate each others successes, and is inspired by women such as Lisa Wilkinson and Jana Wendt. She also believes that self esteem in teenagers should be nurtured, and if she ever had the chance to give her own 16 year old self some advice, she would tell her to lighten up and let it go because it won’t count.

Whilst Shelley is ever so humble and attributes her career to timing and chance, I, like the rest of Australia know better. Her unbridled joy is contagious and her talent unquestionable. She’s divine. Genuine. Gorgeous. Utterly beautiful.

Watch this space as The Modern Woman’s Survival Guide is giving two super lucky readers the chance to attend the launch of Hanger Nation at The Olsen Hotel in South Yarra on the 28th of February. They will get to meet Shelley in the flesh (you lucky doers) and stay overnight at The Olsen and shop up a storm down Chapel Street with $500 spending money. Full details of the competition will be published soon.

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