Behind the Bright Edition

Aside from Torah Bright’s ever-growing list of accomplishments on the slopes, there’s no denying her impeccable style. This will be her 7th season of designing her own snow outerwear range: ROXY Bright Edition.

Torah blends street style fits with a feminine twist, mixed with ROXY’s technical outerwear know-how and you have the perfect balance of form and function.

We caught up with Torah to find out where her inspiration comes from and what she loves most about designing her own range.

Image courtesy of Thredbo Resort

What are the new trends you have added to your Bright Edition this season?

I honestly have nothing in mind when I start the process but I love how organic it is. I have always loved floral prints, two collections ago I had another floral print that I loved.

This collection I think the colour and how it almost looks tie-dyed. The print is iridescent, it’s beautiful. That print came from seeing a dress in a magazine and I was like, the colours, the floral, it's beautiful - how can we do this?!

You have a relaxed and effortless style both on and off the slopes, where do you get your style inspiration?

When I look for inspiration for the outerwear I don't look for anything in particular, I just let it come to me. There's no method to the madness. I'll be online and browsing my favourite designers or flipping through fashion magazines as i'm travelling and i'll tear out pages, so it comes from all different places. So when I deliver my inspiration to the designers, I've written all over everything - I like this colour, I like this cut, I like this button, I really like the neck of this coat. The ROXY designers then translate my inspiration into an outerwear piece.

So you like to bring some street influence to the snow?

The style on the street is a big influence. I like it to be worn from the street to the bar at night. For me living out of a bag - I can't always bring a nice coat, I don't have the room! So I will wear a ski jacket out at night instead.

The diamante trims have become a hallmark of your range, how did that begin?

The diamantes stemmed from the goggle I wore during the 2006 Olympics. The ROXY team asked what I wanted on my goggles, easy - diamonds! I had as many swarovski crystals that could fit.

We've toned it down a little since then but those kind of touches just adds to the continuity between the collections over the years. Also, as I'm a female on the mountain I want to feel like a female out there. I want it to be very feminine, luxurious and glamorous. So I feel like keeping those subtle details is that little piece of glamour to take out on the mountain.

How do you contribute functional ideas as a snowboarder to the ROXY design team?

ROXY has always taken input from the riders, more so from the function. Our feedback and input can be quite valuable, as we're out on the mountain everyday. It’s easy research and development, we get the first samples and then we let them know if we have any feedback or if anything isn't really working. It's a fun process, and it's the subtle tweaks that we help to make a difference eg. the pockets might be in an awkward spot, the level of waterproofing of the fabrics.

Do you get a little buzz when you see girls out on the mountain in your gear?

Yeah I do! I get so excited when I see my gear on the mountain. What makes me really excited is seeing some of my older collections still out there. My very first collection, it was called something different. So when I see those coats out on the snow, I get a real kick. It's awesome!