Nerida Hansen: Shoppers loved Australia’s ‘fabric queen’. Then, order by order, her story fell apart

In a statement to the BBC, Ms Hansen admitted she had made some “very poor” decisions relating to her businesses, adding her actions had caused her “great shame and embarrassment”.

She said she had experienced financial difficulties that led to her liquidating her company in late 2022 – before opening a new one in a new name.

Following that, she said she fell further behind with orders in 2024, citing supplier issues and business mismanagement, but insisted she was still in control of the situation.

“Even though I mismanaged orders terribly I was steering my own business wheel,” she said.

She had intended to have all orders completed by the end of January 2025, she said, but the creation of the Facebook group had led to a wave of refund requests and bank chargebacks being submitted all at the same time.

This left the business overwhelmed, Ms Hansen said, and caused her trading account to be frozen.

She still intended to fulfil every order and refund owed to her customers, she stated, but did not currently have the means to do so.

She alleged the attention brought to her businesses online by Ms O’Connor’s Facebook group had amounted to “horrific social media harassment” and defamation.

She claimed Ms O’Connor went beyond advocating for justice online. She accused her of encouraging others in the Facebook group to engage in what she describes as amounting to “digital stalking” and “physical stalking”, and that Ms O’Connor “publicly made deliberate attempts to sabotage [her] livelihood”.

Ms O’Connor disputed these allegations saying they were “outrageous”.

“Customers being persistent and demanding in terms of seeking a refund or product that the vendor had happily taken money for is not harassment,” she said.

Despite everything that has happened, Ms O’Connor is determined to continue sewing – though she insists she will never wear any of Nerida Hansen’s designs again.

She will continue to fight until Ms Hansen’s businesses are shut down, she says.

“Some people are still awaiting justice and we hope that can be achieved.”