Sass & bide co-founder Sarah-Jane Clarke is one month away from going through the whole year without a single sip of alcohol.
And she’s not sure when – or if – she’ll ever drink again.
The fashion designer, who is now based in Sydney, opened up to Harper’s Bazaar about why she decided to give up drinking for an entire 12 months.
Sass & bide co-founder Sarah-Jane Clarke is one month away from completing a year without a single sip of alcohol
The fashion designer, who is now based in Sydney, decided to go 12 months without alcohol after realising she had a ‘binge drinking problem’, she revealed
It was on Instagram that Clarke first revealed her New Year’s Resolution.
‘Happy birthday to me…looking forward to 365 days alcohol free! #nomorehangovers #banthebinge #takecontrol #fresheveryday,’ she wrote on December 5, 2016.
Clarke revealed to the magazine that her decision was a long time coming after decades of excessive drinking.
‘I had a binge drinking problem, definitely. If I have one or two drinks, it is fine. If I have three or four, I lose all judgment,’ she said.
Clarke began drinking when she was in Year 10 while growing up in Brisbane during the swing of the eighties.
‘I learned from a very early age to think it was acceptable to drink irresponsibly, and then used that as stress relief with three young kids, all under four, and through my working years at Sass & bide,’ she said.
Clarke began drinking when she was in Year 10 while growing up in Brisbane. She posted her new goal on Instagram last year to hold herself accountable (pictured)
Clarke (pictured here at a sass & bide Christmas party) said she found that alcohol helped transform her into an extrovert, masking her insecurities and banishing any social anxiety.
Clarke, who launched Sass & bide with Heidi Middleton in the late 90s, said she took it upon herself to make sure she was everyone’s favourite party girl.
The shy designer said she found that alcohol helped transform her into an extrovert, masking her insecurities and banishing any social anxiety.
The label took off after it found a fan in Sarah Jessica Parker, and Clarke soon learned that fashion was intrinsically tied to alcohol.
Clarke (pictured with sass & bide co-founder Heidi Middleton) found that fashion and drinking ‘went hand in hand’ after their label took off
‘Fashion and drinking go hand in hand. It was very hard to escape. Everywhere you went, there was champagne,’ she said.
There were dinner parties and fashion week parties and nights that raged past 3AM.
And Clarke, who said she genuinely loves the taste and ritual that comes with drinking alcohol, enjoyed having a chance to be ‘reckless’ and ‘carefree’.
It got to the point where she wondered if people liked her better when she was intoxicated.
But as the years went by the blackouts were getting bad, and the hangovers were even worse.
Clarke found herself plagued with ‘hangover-anxiety’, racked with guilt over the things she said and the decisions she made while drunk.
Doctors advised Clarke to cut out alcohol after she was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, but it was the ‘mother of all hangovers’ that finally convinced the designer to kick her habit.
Clarke was blacked out for four hours after she had four martinis at an intimate dinner party at her house.
Nothing embarrassing had happened and none of her friends had noticed, but the mother-of-three was completely overcome with shame.
Since ditching alcohol Clarke found that her energy is different and said her husband Dan Baffsky (pictured together) ‘really likes the fact’ she is drinking less as well
Clarke could barely eat or sleep for four days as she wrapped herself up in anxiety over the incident.
It was then that Clarke realised the fun she had while drinking was far outweighed by the days she wasted afterward feeling emotionally and physically terrible.
The designer knew she needed to make a major change, and decided to post about it on Instagram to hold herself accountable.
In these last 10 months, Clarke lost some friends but said her life has entered an unaltered state that has completely changed it for the better.
‘It is a much clearer way, a clearer life, and you can see things you didn’t see before and you can deal with things so much better without alcohol,’ she said.
Clarke found that her energy is different and said her husband Dan Baffsky, an architect, ‘really likes the fact’ she is drinking less and has cut back himself as well.
The designer is not exactly sure what she will do when her year is up, but knows that if she does drink again she wants it to be a beautiful experience.