“The harder you go in, the more it convinces your brain that it’s true”: Sarah McLeod on eliminating fear through fashion with Bad Valentine

Singer, songwriter,performerin a musical and now a fashion label. Sarah McLeod wears many hats, but it’s her latest venture into designer apparel that shows just how far her creativity can stretch.

The self-declared hard worker – “I have no life, I just work all the time,” she told TMN – was struck with a new kind of energy at the start of the year, and has used that to fuel her latest creative outlet, fashion label Bad Valentine.

“It’s a lifestyle choice, I can’t keep it up forever, but I’m really in it at the moment. Something happened to me, like I hit the ground running on the first of January this year and I just got overcome with motivation and I thought I’m just gonna strike while the iron’s hot and if I burn out and I have a heart attack in a year, then so be it then I’ll take the time out.

“But until then, while I have these ideas and while I wanna do it, and while I’m super passionate about it and love working around the clock, by the way, I enjoy it. It’s fun for me. So while I’ve got it, why not do it?”

“It’s fun to be so excited and passionate about something… I mean I’ve been in the music business for over 20 years, and I’m still just as excited by every new thing every day. I’m grateful for that because it can get pretty stagnant and it can get pretty jaded pretty quickly.”

Despite a penchant for embellishing t-shirts forher time on stagewith The Superjesus as well as her solo performances, the decision to release a line of apparel may surprise some people – most of all, McLeod herself.

“I don’t really understand fashion, so to me to be walking around and going ’yes, now I’m in fashion’ seems really silly because I’ve never followed fashion, I don’t understand why things are fashionable. To me, the clothing that you put on is what makes you feel good.

“I’m all about dressing for comfort because if you feel comfortable, then you’re confident. And if you’re uncomfortable, then you’re wearing something that’s really tight or someone told you to wear it because it’s really hip, then you’re not gonna feel cool when you walk into a room. To me, it’s all about what makes you feel good and the message that it projects.”

And it’s that confident,empowering message that McLeod wants people to embrace, with slogans like BAD MUTHA FUCKA, FUCKIN’ UNREAL and BOSS emblazoned across unisex shirts and tanks.

“The harder you go in, the more it convinces your brain that it’s true. It’s like put it all on red. If you gotta do it, do it big. It’s all about muster and conviction. I have issues with fear and that sometimes overrides my work and gets the better of me. So if I splash it all over my chest, when I walk into a room, I have no choice but to just go for it and find bravado from somewhere and just be the boss, because I’m saying that I am.”

“Initially, I didn’t have a theme, I was just making slogans – for years I’ve been doing it. But I’ve got the second collection all ready to go too that I just did on the plane and it’s fucking badass! I was like, ’Ah, bring on collection two, I can’t wait!’. My favourite one that I thought of for collection two is gonna say Death By Enthusiasm.”

As for who she’d most like to see where something from the Bad Valentine line, there was no hesitation in her response.

“Barnaby Joyce. Hopefully he will be, I sent a ’WHO’S BAD?’ one to his office.”