Last week, a few Inside Gold Coast team members expressed their love for a fantastic shirt they’d stumbled upon. Sporting the catchy slogan “This Senorita needs a Margarita,” the apparel struck a chord. Upon learning this fabulous creation was the brainchild of Gold Coast locals, we wasted no time reaching out for an interview. Welcome to the vibrant world of Sabbi Clothing, where Jase and Ash blend art, fashion, and a dash of their quirky personalities. Read on to learn about the masterminds of the covetable brand and how the Gold Coast lifestyle heavily influences Sabbi, translating into versatile, fun, and beach-to-bar wearable art.

How long have you been Gold Coast locals?
Jase is a vintage Gold Coast boy and has been here for 30 years. Ash moved over from Perth about 12 years ago, the weather was too hard to resist.

What do you love the most about the Gold Coast?
Jase loves the surf and the laid-back lifestyle. Also, that he can wear Crocs all year round and for every occasion. He’s a water boy so anything on the water is up his alley.

Ash: I love the weather. I’m an early riser, so love that it’s so light so early in the mornings in summer. I also love that you never have to get too dressed up fancy to go anywhere.

Tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Jase has been in fashion since he was a kid. He was born into fashion working for his Dad from age 15. He’s worked all over the world as a buyer. He lived in China for 5 years, 2 of which were spent sleeping on fabric rolls while he and his best friend Billy set up their own factory. He has many crazy stories from those years, one involving a street poo and using his socks as toilet paper. Jase is so laid-back he is horizontal. He lives in Crocs and is big believer in Karma.

Ash: I have nothing exciting to tell you professionally, I studied design and textiles when I graduated school. I designed school uniforms for 3 years where I spent my days looking at polo shirts and check shirts day in and day out. Then I left work to travel Australia in a van for 6 months, moved to the Goldie, then pumped out a set of (VERY unexpected) twins. I’ve always been drawn to anything creative, dodgy dance floors and dogs. Having twins taught me that if you can’t laugh at yourself, then you won’t make it out alive. It also taught me that those Huggies ads were a big fat lie!

What inspired you to start Sabbi?
Jase left a brand he and his family started 10 years ago and took 6 months off to paint. Jase can’t sit still so after 6 months at home we decided to combine our love of fashion and art into one crazy little brand. Fashion seems to be so serious so we wanted to bring some fun back to fashion. We wanted to make clothes that we wanted to wear with a side of our crazy personalities added.

Tell us about the process of creating your unique prints.
Jase finds a theme or a sketch or a colourway. Ash then finds a saying to match. Something funny or positive and then we both work out a print that we think works.

Sometimes this can take half an hour or sometimes Jase (drives Ash crazy) and will spend 3 weeks finetuning one print.

What sets Sabbi apart from other fashion brands?
We guess maybe our artwork. It’s all hand painted on the Gold Coast by us. We don’t buy our prints in. We then oversee the whole process from design to shipping the orders to our customers.

We’d also say maybe showing the craziness that goes on behind the scenes. We both have other jobs, we have 7 year old twins half the time and throw in two dogs, all living under one roof…the roof also happens to be our warehouse.

Sometimes I look around the house and see the twins eating breakfast at the island table next to a HUGE pile of Sabbi returns on the table, boxes of Sabbi stock stacked up around the TV and it sets off my anxiety. Jase just says, “it’s all part of the journey, baby”.

How would you describe the Sabbi community, and what kind of person do you envision wearing your designs?
The Sabbi community are bloody legends! The support we have received is just mind-blowing. We can’t believe that all these people are cheering for two absolute bogans from Palmy. It still blows our minds that so many people are wearing our clothes when we have only just kicked it off.

The kind of people wearing our clothes love art, know how to have a good time and are all about positive vibes…also love a bloody cold margarita. we didn’t realise there were so many margie lovers out there! IGC.

As Gold Coast locals, how has the local culture and lifestyle influenced the style and ethos of Sabbi?
Here on the Gold Coast, it’s all about lifestyle. Going from the beach to the shops to a cheeky margie with the gals, so we wanted to create something you could wear everywhere but also feel like a solid 10 wearing it!

What’s next for Sabbi?
We have big plans baby so strap in!

We have a killer winter range in the works. We have a men’s range dropping soon and we want to continue to make fashion-forward prints and designs that make people feel good.

We want people to love what they’re wearing and we want to promote positive energy through our clothes. If we can make a few people laugh along the way then we are winning.

What are your Gold Coast favourites?
Favourite café: Don’t hate us. but we love a 7/11 coffee. When we were starting up Sabbi we had to sell everything so our budget was TIGHT AS…7/11 coffee grew on us haha. If we aren’t 7/11ing then Well Bread and Pastry in Palmy.
Favourite restaurant: Deli by Peppi…Cheese wheel Wednesdays are something else!
Favourite bar: Scott’s in Palm Beach for a delicious Pet Nat
Favourite beach: Palmy Ave

How do you choose to spend your days off?
Hanging out with the twins, Taking Allen and Merv to the dog park. When we get some alone time we love nothing more than to get a bottle of Pet Nat and sit on the couch in our jammies watching really really sh*t TV (Housewives of Beverly Hills, Southern Charm, Below Deck to name a few) while talking…Jase usually falls asleep and is snoring an hour in.

Nik Mirkovic, is one of the innovative minds behind the wildly successful HiSmile brand. With his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for creating accessible, effective products, Nik has transformed HiSmile into a global phenomenon. We delve into Nik’s journey, the inspiration behind HiSmile, and why the Gold Coast is the perfect base for big business.

How long have you been a Gold Coast local?
I was born and raised on the Gold Coast (I’m currently 28 years old).

What do you love the most about the Gold Coast?
I love the Gold Coast lifestyle, it’s unlike anywhere else in the world. Cities around the world are either so big that you’re stuck in traffic trying to get anywhere, or they’re so small that you’re unable to have huge ambitions and build an amazing and hard working team. On the Gold Coast, I feel like we’ve got the perfect balance of the ambitions and drive of a major city, and the peace and tranquility of a small getaway town.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I grew up on the Gold Coast and I always had a passion to compete and challenge myself. My lifelong dream was to play professional football and to take my career over to Europe and compete with the best full-time. After finishing school I went on to try and pursue my dream, moving over to the UK to trial with a few bigger clubs. Realising I wasn’t at the level to compete at the very top, I had to make the tough decision of moving back to Australia to find a new challenge rather than lowering my expectations and playing professionally at a lower level.

I absolutely love living on the Gold Coast, and it plays a massive part in who I am as a person. I couldn’t see myself moving away from this amazing city anytime in the future!

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind starting HiSmile?
HiSmile started off the back of a common pain point for teenagers at the time, they loved whitening their teeth but they hated the pain and sensitivity that came as a by-product. We wanted to create a product that delivered the results but without the pain and sensitivity of traditional whitening.

When you launched HiSmile absolutely took off. Your sales went from zero to $50 million in three years! How did you navigate that crazy time?
The growth and challenges over the years have been crazy, but we take things one step at a time. Alex (the other co-founder) and I have always been obsessed with understanding enough about every part of the business to be dangerous enough to make decisions across the board, rather than relying on outsourcing and not getting involved. This allows us to organise and control that chaos as opposed to that being out of our hands.

What has been the biggest opportunity and/or challenge so far?
The biggest challenge came a few years into the business when we decided to invest heavily into r & d and the backend operation of the business (finance, legal, supply chain, data, procurement, etc). These were large investments that wouldn’t result in instant growth and revenue, but it was an investment that we felt we had to make in order for us to take that next step forward as a company.

HiSmile has expanded its product range beyond teeth whitening. Can you talk about the decision to diversify and the process of developing new products?
Our goal is to become the biggest oral care company in the world and to take that category to another level, away from its traditional mundane past. In order to work towards that goal it means that we have to expand the way we look at oral care, and expand our product offering. We now offer cosmetic whitening, brightening, everyday toothpastes and toothbrushes, dental professional whitening, and dental specific products for targeted solutions. Our development process starts in our r & d facility on the Gold Coast where we bring our ideas to life.

What can we expect next from HiSmile?
We’ll continue to launch market leading and world first products. We’re looking to do things that haven’t been done before in oral care, so we aim to elevate the entire category through amazing products and partnerships.

What is the best piece of business advice that you have ever been given?
Never get comfortable and complacent, make changes before external factors force your hand to change.

What are your Gold Coast favourites…
Café/coffee spot: HiSmile cafe 😉 otherwise Tarte and Commune in Burleigh
Restaurant: Gemelli
Bar or place for a drink: Paloma Wine Bar
Beach: Rainbow Bay

How do you choose to spend your days off?
At the beach, with family and friends.

Revie Jane is a well-known entrepreneur and content creator on the Gold Coast scene. She has just launched athleisure label, Alitah State. We sat down with her to chat about life, what drew her to fitness and the ins and outs of starting her own label.

How long have you been a Gold Coast local?
Originally from Brisbane, I made the move to the beautiful Gold Coast in 2010. I moved for love – cliche? Yes, but I’m not mad about it. Married for 11 years this year, so the move was a wise decision. I knew I liked the guy I met but, I didn’t know how much I would love the lifestyle on the Gold Coast. The amazing cafes, the coastal breeze, the sunrises, and the people- what wasn’t to love? So, I fell head over heels for the guy and the town and never looked back. Now, with a little family of my own, I couldn’t think of a better place to call home.

What do you love the most about the Gold Coast?
I have been privileged enough to travel to some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, Maui Hawaii, Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, Miami Beach in California USA, but whenever I’ve returned from these extraordinary places, it reinforces to me that the Gold Coast has the world’s best beaches. The water, the sun, the friendly families you meet along the coast, whose kids start playing with your own; nothing can beat it. Followed closely by the incredible array of restaurants and cafes. We have endless options of cuisines and talented chefs; we are spoilt for choice when date night rolls by.

A huge aspect I love about the Gold Coast is how active you can be while living here, the weather and the sunshine encourages you to get up early, so you don’t miss a beautiful sunrise. I love nothing more than waking up early to hit the pavement and see so many other walkers and runners going up and down Burleigh paths. It’s just such a beautiful atmosphere.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
From an early age, I knew that fitness and exercise was not just something that made me physically stronger, it also gave me clarity and improved my mental and emotional wellness. Once I had established this connection, I was passionate about helping others come to that realisation too. So, I started studying fitness, I became a group fitness instructor and started helping women specifically, feel empowered through moving their bodies.

Before I knew it, I had a community of women, who were showing up to group sessions each day and I truly felt like I had found my purpose. It was in 2013 that I opened my own Fitness Studio, CrossFit Babes Miami.

Instagram had just started around this time, and I was an early adopter. I started sharing the highs and lows of owning a business and started amassing thousands of followers. I’ve shown up online and shared parts of my life for the past 10 years. Although some weeks are challenging and I’ve definitely experienced some of the uglier parts of having an online presence, I can say wholeheartedly that being a content creator and having the community I do, has been very fulfilling.

You’ve just launched Alitah State, tell us a bit about this brand.
Alitah State is an athleisure label that is made from sustainable fabrics that is working it’s toosh off to also be size inclusive. We are currently offering sizes 8-18 and hope the by the end of 2023 to broaden.

All Alitah State products are made (with love!) in beautiful Bali, intentionally small batches, from sustainable, high-quality fabrics.

In our first capsule, we are offering four thoroughly thought-out designs in the colour ways latte and rose. Each piece has been tested through high performance workouts, long walks and even hot Pilates. It’s built to withstand it all and ensure you look good while doing it.

Alitah is a name with Old German origins, meaning ‘Strong Woman’, while ‘State’ offers two meanings, to have a specific mindset and to be a part of a community of people who are united by their beliefs and territory.

Alitah State is athleisure with brains and heart.

How did Alitah State come about?
Having fitness as a life pillar, has ensured I’ve tried and tested a massive amount of activewear and it’s become a huge part of my wardrobe. But there have been countless times, I’ve walked into a store or visited a website and exited empty handed because they didn’t have what I was after.

We shouldn’t have to sacrifice practicality for flattering designs. Struggling to find a brand that was ticking all the boxes, I started to get frustrated. Why couldn’t these multimillion dollar corporations care more about their practises? Why weren’t they being more size inclusive? Why are they still packaging their parcels with a bunch of marketing pieces that will go to waste? I got so frustrated I decided to do something about it.

In 2019 I started getting samples from manufacturers in China, and in 2020 I found the manufacturer we are with today located in Bali, Indonesia. Four years of perfecting designs, fabrics and colour ways, Alitah State was born.

What has been the biggest opportunity and/or challenge so far for you in launching Alitah State?
The biggest challenge we have found was finding a manufacturer who provides eco-conscious practises and fabrics while accommodating across broad size ranges. It felt like it was almost one or the other, being size inclusive or eco-conscious. The minimum order of quantities they had were unrealistic for a start-up and so we had to find someone willing to negotiate their starting point or exclude and piss off a large group of people. Luckily, we found the amazing manufacturers we have today, they’re willing to grow with us as we establish ourselves. While we aren’t where we want to be in our size range, I have confidence that we will be able to reach this soon as a matter of top priority.

What is the best piece of business advice that you have ever been given? 
In business you’re going to want to give up a lot of times. Whether it’s unhappy customers, finance problems, manufacturing issues, staff conflicts, there is a plethora of problems. The only thing that is going to stop you from giving up as a connection to purpose and something that brings you joy.

A question I asked myself before I studied fitness, was ‘if money wasn’t an issue, what would I spend my time doing?’ Now, I did double-check and sadly, sipping cocktails with a book in hand poolside isn’t a job, *sigh* but, helping people find the bridge between self-respect and fitness was. So, I pursued that. And in some way, I don’t feel like I’ve strayed too far from the desire to share the message that each person is capable of more than they think.

As a busy woman and mother, how do you manage your time to really strike that work/life balance?
I’ve started to accept that balance is a bit of a myth. In my life at least, there are the tiniest blips where there is actual balance. Most of the time though, when my focus and presence is with my kids, my work is behind and if I’m killing it at work, then I’m absent at home. The myth that women can do it all is starting to retire and I am here for that. I can do a LOT but it’s okay to need help, it’s okay to delegate, it’s okay to say, ‘no, I am at capacity.’ We tend to do the things that are the highest priority, and accept that other parts may fall behind a bit. And making peace with that has been revolutionary.

How are you planning on spending this Mother’s Day?
Nothing beats morning cuddles in your pyjamas, while your little one cautiously carries you over a cup of coffee and the other little one hands you a present bought from the school Mothers’ Day stall. I am very lucky to have a wonderful husband who makes sure I get something a little more sturdy than some of those gifts and who also gives the gift every mum wants on Mother’s Day. Some me-time.

An hour on the sun bed, reading a fluffy romance is my idea of bliss.

What are your Gold Coast favourites…
Café/coffee spot: Palm Springs and Rafiki
Restaurant: Mr Hizola’s
Bar or place for a drink: Rick Shores
Beach: Miami Beach

How do you choose to spend your days off? 
Where else but the beach? Catching some waves with the kids, finding shells to make sand cakes, reading a book under an umbrella, it’s honestly the best. Our problems seem to melt away when we’re in the ocean, and we find ourselves leaning into gratitude every time our feet hit the sand. There’s no place we’d rather be, than the Gold Coast.