As a true millennial, Jordana Sexton remembers the years of print media. In her teenage years, she felt a deep abiding loyalty, particularly to the frothiness of the 35mm editorials from Frankie Magazine. Creative direction seemed like a fantasy come to life, the ability to carve magic from concept into pages.
During her years of formative study, Sexton maintained a deep fascination with the commercial side of fashion. Magazines remained a key source material for analysing pitches and poring over captivating imagery. Her education included studying radio at TAFE, fueled by a passion for storytelling across sound, fashion and cinema. This was an era where media platforms like journals, magazines, and film relied on tactile elements, and information was not yet accessible at a blinkering speed via the internet.
In a way, the early days shaped the work that she has done for the last decade. Before everything else she was an Area Manager and Buyer for Bracewell, one of the first stockists of Sass & Bide, before they opened their own retail spaces. In her early twenties, she then moved into sales at BEC + BRIDGE —where she was one of the first employees who signed onto the brand.
Sexton didn’t start off with the otherworldly experience from the outset. It was, in fact, having experience in international markets which shaped her professional direction. Trade shows were a key learning flashpoint. She was flitting from Sydney to London, Paris, Vegas and Miami in her twenties, setting up a booth on her own. “You can’t learn that resilience any other way, except for on the floor, and in these appointments,” she tells me. “You have to have the confidence to go into a room and to shape a sales appointment. It’s on you to read the numbers and conduct the research, to understand a brand and their niche.”
While Sexton never fully transitioned away from her roots in wholesale, her immersion in international domains made a move into marketing feel like a natural progression. This shift from sales and business operations allowed her to seamlessly absorb marketing responsibilities and digital literacy into her existing role. Integrating these functions felt like an instinctive arm of her professional identity.
Sexton balanced a glut of consulting work for Venroy and Bondi Born before moving into distribution for Spanx, DKNY and Stella McCartney intimates and their entry into the Australian market. She led wholesale and global expansion at BEC + BRIDGE. At Aje, Sexton worked with the international team to foster growth internationally across Europe, America and the UAE, all the while holding the titles as Brand and Marketing Director, where she led the brand’s Paris Fashion Week debut and directed Aje Athletica.
"Above all else, I want to be a mentor ... It took me a really long time to find someone in the business to look up to ... Today, if you asked me, a mentor is someone who has the ability to say, ‘I don’t have the answers, but let’s do it together.’"
~ Jordana Sexton
The most significant lesson came from the art of team-building. By surrounding herself with a cohort of like-minded, driven individuals, Sexton shifted her focus from execution to management, aligning individual growth with broader organisational objectives. This transition marked one of the most substantial leaps in her career.
“All that taught me about the leader and woman I want to be in the industry,” Sexton tells me. “Above all else, I want to be a mentor.” Coming up in the industry, the creative director struggled to piece her own career together without an advisor of her own. “It took me a really long time to find someone in the business to look up to,” she notes. “Today, if you asked me, a mentor is someone who has the ability to say, ‘I don’t have the answers, but let’s do it together.’”
Today, Sexton speaks to me fresh out of a corporate role and a newly minted founder of Jolity Studios—a creative direction and marketing strategy enterprise. The core skill set and offering is unchanged: understanding the customer, protecting the brand DNA, and decision-making to nurture creative and commercial outcomes.
The latest initiative rolled out at Jolity Studios? Launching WeWearAustralia, a distinct vision of contemporary Australian luxury. The project initiative includes a 5,000-square-foot U.S flagship store alongside the launch of their new e-commerce platform, WeWearAustralian.com, bringing a curated collective of Australian fashion and lifestyle brands to the U.S. Hosting up 35 Australian labels across fashion, accessories, beauty, art and interiors, including Hansen and Gretel, Lee Mathews, Matin, and VIKTORIA & WOODS, amongst others. “I’m passionate about bringing Australian brands to the world and showing up in a way that feels considered and elevated,” she says of the partnership. “Fashion is inherently about community, and fostering human relationships is a part of growth. They work hand in hand.” Over the next five years, the label is planning to scale 4 stores on American soil.”
“I’m passionate about bringing Australian brands to the world and showing up in a way that feels considered and elevated ... Fashion is inherently about community, and fostering human relationships is a part of growth. They work hand in hand.”
~ Jordana Sexton
A broader cultural perspective is essential to this growth. The necessity of versatile, interchangeable skills cannot be overstated, especially within the Australian fashion landscape where professional boundaries often overlap. Success requires dexterity at multiple functions; where brands increasingly look for talent capable of merging sharp commercial logic with refined creative intuition.
For Sexton, engaging with diverse business insights and founder narratives beyond the fashion sphere remains vital. Consistent reading—and engagement with AI allows her the capacity to absorb varied perspectives and cultivate a well-rounded outlook. She reads stories from Business of Fashion. Her love for radio has never left her either.
With the current swing to embrace AI, technological input doesn’t put the fear of God in her. Rather, it’s about approaching the tools of the new empire with honesty and restraint. After all, personal connection and organic growth – as evidenced in her career – is still built on the rock of human relationships.
When I enquire about her stance on AI in a creative vein, Sexton mulls on an answer. “I don’t think I’ve wrapped my head entirely around that yet,” she muses. “With systematic approaches, perhaps. But with photoshoots and visual references, I’m not quite there.” Perhaps it’s her age cohort, or her love for the tactile, but there are some viewpoints that don’t recede with time. Another unyielding factor is her own spirituality. By her own definition, Sexton is pro ‘woo-woo’. Being a mother has sharpened this instinct for her. “I’m a Gemini, and my daughter is an Aries,” she adds, by way of explaining. “She’s only three, and she’s going to be a powerhouse.” Her fluency in reading other people’s energy is what Sexton attributes as a lesson from her own clairvoyant mother—and a credit to her own leadership. It is an indication of the way she shows up in management roles, and how she interacts with stakeholders and creatives. They go hand in hand.
When we reach the topic of what’s on the horizon, the answer from Sexton remains fixed to her own guiding principles, all those years ago. “I want to orient work around the same tendencies I craved, and give proper guidance by treating emerging creatives with what they deserve,” she mentions. “I want to continue working with founders, and guide them through the best way forward by leading with care. Spirituality can show up in fashion and business by bringing just that – a beautiful resilient energy, to celebrate what you’ve achieved so far.”
Profile by Karen Leong
Photography by Maya Pratt
