About
The Story behind
Ocean Meets Green
Hallo and Welcome to the story behind Ocean Meets Green.
My name is Alena and I am the face behind the brand.
If you've come to this part of our website, I'm assuming that you'd like to find out how this brand was born. So I invite you to sit back and come on the journey with me.
A quick intro
About the brand name
Are you wondering what Ocean Meets Green actually stands for?
Good question! Here's the answer:
Ocean: All garments are made with ECONYL® yarn. A 100% regenerated nylon fibre that is made by recovering fishing nets and other discarded waste materials (such as fabric scraps from mills and carpets destined for landfill). But because of the fishing nets we went with the 'Ocean' component.
Meets: This is the combining piece [to meet = to touch or join].
Green: Where the clothes are worn - on the greens of golf courses around the globe.
In short: OMG 😉
Where it all began
At the age of 13 I took up playing golf. Even though I had a very strong opinion about it being an ‘old people sport’. My prejudices about the game soon disappeared and I loved it. My prejudices about golf clothes being old-fashioned however, stuck around for a lot longer. As I got better, I played in many of the International Amateur Championships across Europe and later Australia as well. At the peak of that time, I would travel from competition to competition and be in a different country each week. This meant I needed quite a few outfits. I had a little capsule wardrobe of clothes, most of which I altered to make them look the way I wanted. But I always struggled to find golf clothes that were comfy, functional and didn’t look like I stole them out of my grandma’s wardrobe.
Every time I’d be desperately looking for a new polo or skirt, I remember my mum saying: “If you can’t find what you like, maybe you have to design your own.” At that time I didn’t think that was a serious option. So, I continued my routine of finding a polo or a skirt that I kind of liked and then going to a tailor to get the polo taken in and the skirt taken up (because I really wasn’t keen on knee-length skirts). Apart from getting skirts taken up I often opted for tennis skirts, which kind of worked but it certainly wasn’t the ideal solution either. While being super comfy and the length I liked, they didn’t come with pockets (very annoying!) and some elite courses weren’t too happy with that kind of dress code.
While travelling from competition to competition and speaking to many girls from different countries I soon realised that I wasn’t alone with that problem. I then moved to Australia in 2017 and got to know the golf industry on the other side of the planet. That's when I realised that the choices of women’s golf clothing were even more limited here.
From sketches to product
Many tournaments and even more tailor visits later I decided that it was time to make a change. This gap in the female golf clothing market had to be filled. Even if it was purely to create clothes that I loved wearing myself. I started by putting pen to paper to visualise my ideas (don't be fooled though, this was nowhere near an overnight thing - it took 2 years to get from these sketches to a final product that I was happy with).
Around this same time, I became more interested in sustainable fashion and slow fashion. I started buying from small companies that made an effort to reduce their environmental footprint. Companies that were very transparent about each step of their production. And I loved that these companies went the extra mile to create a better product for a better tomorrow. The decision was made that Ocean Meets Green would put sustainability at the core of the business. From the fabric to the production to the packaging, I wanted to build a business that made a difference. And from that missing space Ocean Meets Green was born.
Being a competitive golfer and having lived in golf clothes for many years, I already knew exactly what I wanted the items to look and feel like. From personal experience I know that I play better when I feel comfortable in my outfit. If I wore something that I thought looked good, it made me feel good about myself. Which helped to feel confident and resulted in me playing better. That doesn’t mean I’m blaming bad rounds on my outfits, but you get the point.
What the first collection is about
Little details are incredibly important to me. I designed the collection with functionality and comfort in mind. Those were all features I looked for on other brands but never found a design that had it all:
- a short golf skirt that still looked classy, elegant and professional
- the placement and design of pockets
- the number and placement of belt loops
- adding an elastic waistband on the skirt (which comes in handy especially the week after the Christmas-food-coma or on days where you just feel a bit bloated)
- a tailored polo that is long enough (I bought a lot of polos a size bigger than I needed because otherwise they weren’t long enough for me. I then had to get them taken in to create a slim fit)
- timeless styles (because I’m not a fan of party prints or fancy flowers that are out of fashion a year later)
This may sound like a pretty straight-forward story and like everything came together for me. But let me tell you that this was the biggest rollercoaster ride of my life. I've had so much fun briging this idea and the brand to life. But holy wow, it's also been one of the most challenging times of my life (with many tears shed along the way). I'm excited about what the future of Ocean Meets Green will look like and look forward to shaping this story together with you :)
