Aje’s Adrian Norris: We acted like a married couple for the first decade of our label
Fashion designer Adrian Norris is best known as CEO of Aje. The 38-year-old talks about his parents’ marriage, why his sister Bree is his client muse and about meeting Kate Moss.
“I was always shocked that Mom didn’t know I was gay.”
My Hungarian Jewish paternal grandmother, Zsu Zsi, passed away last year. I was devastated, it was a great loss. She took me to the Art Gallery of NSW as a six year old; a regular trip we did together. We would sit in the gallery and I would replicate all the paintings in a little sketchbook. I credit her for starting my creative journey.
My mom Michelle is the epitome of coastal glamor – she lives in Noosa – and a person you immediately notice when she walks into a room. She has always been an inspiration for colour, proportion and style in everything I do.
Mama is the softest soul who lost her own mother when she was five – her mother left behind five young children. In a way, I feel like the loss has made her an even better mother to her three kids – I’m the middle child and have an older sister, Bree, and a younger brother, Tim. Mom has always been very caring and caring.
She was Dad’s right-hand man in business. My dad, Jeremy, worked as a dentist and they built practices together – mom was his receptionist and practice manager.
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My parents are still happily married; we catch them holding hands at the dinner table. I often think that’s how love is supposed to be and would like to know what it’s like after 40 years.
My paternal great-aunt, Emma, is 106 and lives alone in Double Bay. The stories she told me about her and my grandmother in London were really my first fashion inspirations. They believed in dressing up for all occasions. They always looked impeccable.
My sister, Bree, is 18 months older than me. We are inseparable. We’ve always been super close, but the bond blossomed around the time I turned 19 and had just returned from Italy.