About DrummRoll

Annabelle Drumm has been based in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) Australia since 2001. Born in New Zealand to a musician/conductor father and a professional artist mother, Annabelle grew up surrounded by colour, textures and music.

Her mother ran a fashion column in a wide reaching, national magazine as a young, unmarried woman in the 1960’s. As a wife and mother, she was courageous in experimenting with spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting, crochet, tapestry, macrame and wall art. Memories still linger of disgusting dye smells coming from the large aluminium pot on the stove. She was a superb sewer and milliner, making clothes that were practical and sometimes astounding works of art. (I still have a hand spun and woven ¾ length coat made from black sheeps wool and hand dyed cobalt blue yarn which she made.)

Watching and being a part of these fascinating projects in work and play had a big influence on me.

My mother taught her to knit and purl when I was about 5 years old but I soon set it aside, preferring sewing for a quicker result. Making minutely detailed dolls clothes progressed to making an enormous wardrobe for myself once I was earning my own income. In those days, Vogue would regularly publish sewing patterns from top European and American designers such as Givenchy, Karl Lagerfield and Anne Klein, all of of which ended up in my wardrobe.

More people were sewing their own clothes in those days so it was easy to find locally sourced, high quality, affordable fabrics. Heaven!

A regular day job was never going to appeal for long and soon, I journeyed to Los Angeles Dance Academy for training, returning to New Zealand and co-founding a small, professional dance company. This company provided entertainment for awards nights, festivals and themed corporate events. It was a great opportunity to put the design and sewing skills to use in lavish costume making. Dance costumes are often colourful and glamorous but, no matter how delicate or skimpy they appeared to be, hard wearing durability was of utmost importance. Dance costumes are stretched to the extreme, sweated over, grabbed, rubbed against, caught in the rain, under UV light and, of course, they cannot afford to become an “epic wardrobe fail” joke at the expense of the dancer. (Scroll down to continue…)

“Art is art concealed” so the saying goes. DrummRoll design continues with the principals of:

1) Making garments that look effortless whilst hiding a solid construction

2) Having fun making economical materials look like a million dollars.

3) Stylish, elegant designs which turn heads but are not so loud as to upstage the wearer.

4) Adding humour and playfulness to your wardrobe that everyone can enjoy. 

I married, divorced and raised two children who have now grown into amazing, creative young men. Retiring from dance after the kids arrived, I became a Booking Agent/Manager for performing artists founding an agency which covered 5 cities in Australia and New Zealand. After that, the next 10 years were spent as a Creative Business Coach helping many types of creative professionals grow their business or career.

I’ve worked as a Breakfast Radio Presenter for 7 years – you’ll find some of my interviews still available online – and I continue to keep my finger in the show business pie as a Theatre Critic.

The Covid lockdowns were the perfect opportunity to pick up the knitting needles. Once the decision was made to start designing again, after so many years, the ideas started to pour out each morning when I woke up. I’m delighted to share my ideas with you and hope you enjoy knitting and wearing them.

Keep in the loop with new designs as they are released by subscribing to my newsletter here on the site.  (Scroll down to continue…)