Victoria Alexander’s fourteen career incarnations span trend forecasting, production designer, Fashion Editor for Vogue Australia and Cosmopolitan and as co-founder of The Film Business Production Company.
As an entrepreneur, she established and operated Sydney’s first small boutique hotel, The Russell Hotel in The Rocks, and the iconic The Bathers Pavilion at Balmoral.
Victoria is the publisher at Love Books and the author of seven books that blend photography, design and storytelling. Her publications include The Bathers Pavilion Cookbook, One, Colour – A Journey, Real – Living a Balanced Life, Home, PossAbilities and her forthcoming book, Boundaries.
She is the creative consultant to The Village Pre-School, Dulwich Hill, and Creative Director of Restore, a sustainable grocery initiative working with regenerative farmers and producers, which has so far helped divert more than 130,000 plastic bottles from landfill.
Q&A with Victoria
Tell us about your connection to North Sydney
I’ve lived in my once-a-bakery home, built in the late 1880s, for twenty-three years. I moved in at a testing time in my life, and it’s felt kind to me ever since. The homes in and around my street tell of their history – there’s humble and ambitious, the streets are narrow, requiring consideration and slowing down.
I can stroll along the harbour, play in a park and walk where writer and poet Henry Lawson, artists Roland Wakelin and Lloyd Rees did, past stonemasons, carpenters and mariners’ houses. The demographic is one of restorers rather than demolishers. Lacking pretension, they smile and know my name at the chemist, post office, florist, dry cleaner and bakery in the McMahons Point shops, giving it the feel of a country village.
The many schools and two universities give it a lively feel. People care for their gardens. Ted Mack gave us a solution to garbage, and the Whitely Garden a gift.
It feels like home should.
What are you working towards at the moment that you’re excited about?
Living every moment to the fullest. Remaining curious.
I’m currently editing Boundaries, my seventh book, consulting to The Village Pre-School and love my role as Creative Director of Restore, where we’ve saved 130,000 plastic bottles from landfill by delivering the best possible fresh grocery staples from regenerative farmers and sustainable producers. Due to a landslide, I’ve unexpectedly been creating a new botanical garden over the past two years, and it’s now flourishing. All excites me.
What are you most proud of?
My family. It’s not always easy exampling a healthy work–life balance and despite working hard and long hours in many demanding entrepreneurial roles across different sectors, I’ve created a close family and independently established my financial security. My close friendships are equally important. Without people who share our ethics, whom we love and trust, we have nothing.
What or who inspires you?
Mothers.
Tell us about another notable woman that you admire.
Lisa MacDonald, Northside Produce Market Coordinator. Her relationship-building with producers and stallholders, her commitment to excellence, and her uncompromising balance of offerings are impressive. The market has been a springboard for producers. It’s a market in the true sense of the word – a place for the community to meet. Her energy each market, rain, hail or shine make it the best market of its kind in Sydney.