Tasmanian merino clothing brand Smitten Merino is closing in on its 20th anniversary, but the family behind it is navigating one of its toughest chapters yet.
Co-founder Carl Mason remains in a Melbourne hospital after a mountain biking accident on Hobart’s kunanyi/Mount Wellington last September left him with a C2 spinal injury – the highest level of quadriplegia possible.
He cannot breathe without a ventilator, cannot move and has battled pneumonia five times since the accident.
His wife and Smitten co-founder Nicola Mason said the family is hoping Carl will undergo diaphragmatic pacing surgery in the next month or two, which could give him more independence from the ventilator.
Carl had been home for two weeks before a setback over the weekend sent him back to intensive care with pneumonia and infections.
Daughter Holly Mason said he had pushed himself too hard after months confined to a hospital room.
“Him going too hard at life, him being like, ‘I’m free’,” she told Pulse.
“He was wanting to go out for coffees and wanting to go on adventures around the streets, watch sunsets.”
The couple started Smitten after moving to Tasmania from Western Australia, when Nicola noticed nobody was making clothing from the island’s renowned super fine merino wool.
“I remember walking around just going, ‘Is there no Tasmanian Merino brand?'” Nicola said.
She began sewing garments on the family dining table and the brand has since won multiple export awards and become a finalist in the Telstra Business Awards.
Around 15 to 18 women in northern Tasmania sew Smitten garments, many of them for most of the brand’s 19-year history.
“We know them all by name, we know who cuts our stuff,” Nicola said.
“It’s more expensive, obviously, to get it made in Tasmania, but we like the story and we want to know who made the clothes.”
Since the accident, Nicola has taken on all of Carl’s business responsibilities, from accounting to staff management, while splitting her time between Hobart and Melbourne.
“It has been extremely gruelling, I have to say,” she said.
The family hopes to bring Carl back to Tasmania within three to six months and is already planning a celebration for the brand’s 20th anniversary next year.
“There’ll be a party,” Nicola said.
