Melanie Greensmith

Melanie Greensmith is a fashion designer and businesswoman from Australia. She established the fashion label Wheels & Dollbaby in 1987 and closed the business in 2017.[1]

Greensmith grew up in London, England.[2] Her mother was a Bluebell showgirl who danced in Paris clubs, and her father was an English cricketer.[3] She created her business in Australia in 1987, without any formal training in fashion, art or design.[4] In 2008, Greensmith was honoured for her contributions to the Western Australian fashion industry when she was awarded a star on the Western Australia Fashion Walk of Fame on King Street in Perth.[5]

In 2018, Greensmith was noted/profiled in the book, Rescuing Ladybugs[6] by author and animal advocate Jennifer Skiff as having stopped using angora rabbit fur from her designs after receiving a “padded envelope in the mail from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and watching a video the organization provided “showing the harvesting of angora wool from rabbits. On it, “living rabbits were having their hair pulled out of their skin and they were screaming in agony. They were then thrown back into cages, raw and bloodied.” [7] In the book, Greensmith says, “I truly believe that the greatest fashions aren’t born from cruelty.”