Lorna Jane Clarkson

Lorna Jane Clarkson (née Smith, Clarkson has authored six books on health and wellbeing and since February 2025 has hosted the Never Give Up vodcast.

Early life Clarkson was born Lorna Jane Smith in Lancashire, England, the younger of two sisters. The family emigrated to Brisbane, Australia, when Lorna was ten years old. As a child, she learned ballet, played netball, and was a school cheerleader. and as a teenager, worked at Mathers shoe store in Woodridge Plaza. She wanted to become a journalist after high school, inspired by Australian journalist Jana Wendt, but deferred her university course by a year and trained instead as a dental therapist. and was posted to Cairns, where she provided dental care in schools. During her time in Cairns, Smith ran her first marathon, but had been interested in fashion since a teenager, crocheting bikinis from age 16, customising her clothes from age 18, and from age 21 starting to design and make her own clothes. She began by unpicking a favourite swimsuit and used it to make a pattern out of newspaper, providing the basis for her first leotard design. In her telling, she began making outfits for her students after receiving requests.

At the time, fashionable activewear was not understood as a concept by major brands.

Deciding to retail the Lorna Jane label themselves, in 1990, Smith and Clarkson opened their first store, The products sold quickly: the business covered its first week of rent with its first day of sales, and in 1991, a customer bought the entire stock of the second Lorna Jane store in a single purchase of $25,000 with the intention of reselling it. She later said that, in hindsight, earning this qualification was unnecessary because of the practical experience she had already gained.

By 2000, to expand the business, the Clarksons sold their home in the Brisbane suburb of Paddington for $450,000 to purchase a factory in Fortitude Valley. In 2016, the overall value of the business was estimated at $500 million,

In 2014, the Clarksons considered selling the business, but eventually withdrew when they considered the implications of losing their personal control of what they had built, with Clarkson saying she would lose a part of her identity without the brand.

During 2015, the Lorna Jane company was the subject of media attention over allegations that a former manager had been bullied at work because of her body shape, and separately, over a job ad the company posted for a receptionist requiring physical characteristics so she could also work as a fitting model for garment development. after the company released the LJ Shield product which it claimed stopped the "transferal of all pathogens" during the Coronavirus pandemic. The following year, a federal court judge found that Lorna Jane "represented to consumers that it had a reasonable scientific or technological basis" to make its claims when it had none. Clarkson had authorised and approved the promotional material for this product, and had made the same claims in media communications. The following September, Clarkson personally acquired the SOMA wellness retreat in the Byron Bay hinterland, New South Wales, for a reported AU$10.98 million. The property had previously been used as a filming location for the television series Nine Perfect Strangers.

Personal life Clarkson has not had children, which she describes a choice made to allow a focus on her career,

The Clarksons paid $10.3 million for a riverfront home in Hamilton. As of 2015, it was the fourth-most expensive residential property purchase in Brisbane ever. With the Clarksons spending increasing amounts of time in the United States to oversee the brand's expansion into that country, they bought a property in Santa Monica, California in early 2016. The property has two large houses on it; one in which they live, and the other which they have fitted out as a design studio for Lorna.

Clarkson maintains a series of routines. These include each night laying out activewear for the next day (which she finds more authentic than businesswear In 2014, she was doing strength training twice a week, yoga or stretching "every single day" and two or three fitness classes a week. She says that most of her design ideas come to her while she is exercising.

Clarkson cites her favourite designers as Helmut Lang, Manolo Blahnik, Isabel Marant, and Chanel. She admires Oprah Winfrey as a female leader, Bono, and Al Gore, In an interview in 2012, she expressed pride in her self-identification as an active manager, arriving at the office early and staying late each day. She identifies inspiring women to live active lives as an important element of her personal and professional life.

Awards and praise In March 2013 and again in March 2014, Clarkson was included in the BRW "Rich Women" list of the thirty wealthiest Australian women who had not inherited their money. Her fortune was reported at $40 million in 2013 and $50 million in 2014.

In 2016, Forbes named Clarkson among Asia's 50 Power Businesswomen.

Lorna Jane has won a total of 14 design awards and numerous marketing awards. Clarkson has personally received the AMP Capital and BRW Award for Australia's Outstanding Retailer and has won multiple RAQ Fashion Design Awards. Publications Clarkson has published six books on health and wellbeing: Move, Nourish, Believe: The Fit Woman's Secret Revealed (2011), MORE of the Fit Woman's Secrets (2013), NOURISH - The Fit Woman's Cookbook (2014), INSPIRED (2015),

Vodcast In February 2025, Clarkson launched the Never Give Up podcast and vodcast - a video podcast format - featuring interviews with women founders, entrepreneurs and public figures on themes of resilience and self-belief.