Behind the Lens — The Story of Del Mar
By Caitri Jones, Founder
I was twelve years old when my great aunt gave me my first lace camisole.
She was beautiful and stylish in the way that certain women simply are - effortlessly, innately. And she had chosen this for me. Not a toy, not something practical. Something feminine. Something that said: I see who you are becoming.
I remember the texture of it. The delicacy. The way it made me feel, even at twelve, like I had been let in on something. Like I was being welcomed, woman to woman, into an understanding that the things you wear can hold meaning far beyond fabric.
That feeling never left me. The idea that clothing could make you feel seen, considered, beautiful - before you'd even stepped outside. That a single, considered gift from one woman to another could plant something that grows for a lifetime.
Everything that became Del Mar starts there.
A Life in Fashion
By seventeen, I was already working in it.
Retail first, then wholesale, learning the industry from the inside out, understanding what moves women, what lasts, what doesn't. I finished university; I completed my professional stylist's course, worked in costume design. Fashion wasn't a phase or a detour. It was the thread running through everything.
At twenty-three I was living in Nice, travelling through the Mediterranean - immersing myself in the way European women dress. The ease of it. The colour. The way a well-made piece commands a room without trying. That time shaped my eye in ways I'm still drawing on today.
I came home, kept working, kept learning. And then life opened into its next chapter - marriage, children, a new kind of adventure.
The World That Shaped Del Mar
When my eldest was just one year old, we moved to Jakarta for my husband's work.
After a life shaped by the quiet of the West Australian coast, Jakarta was a revelation - vivid, layered, and humming with a kind of beauty I'd never encountered at that scale. The colour, the craft, the way beautiful things were made by hand as a matter of course - it recalibrated what I understood luxury to mean.
And Bali was close. I travelled there alone, with family, and kept being drawn back again and again - by the light, the warmth, the coastline, and the hands that make things slowly, carefully, and with deep skill.
The sea has always been the thread. It runs through every place that has shaped me - the West Australian coast I grew up on, the Mediterranean I fell in love with at twenty-three, the Indonesian waters I lived beside. Del Mar - of the Sea - felt like the only possible name.
It's also a tribute to my closest friend, who is from Alicante on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. Ours is a friendship shaped by coastlines and continents, one that has only deepened with time. The name carries her in it, and the strength, grace and warmth of all the women who inspire this brand.
Why Now
My children are growing up. This chapter - the one where they needed me most - is closing, and a new one is opening.
I've spent years working in between raising them, always staying connected to fashion in one form or another. But this is the first time I've heading towards having the space to build something entirely my own. Something I've designed from the inside out, with no compromises and no shortcuts.
Del Mar is for women who feel the same way. Women who value longevity over trends, quality over volume, pieces that earn their place in a wardrobe and stay there. Women who have lived enough life to know exactly what they want from it.
Who I Made This For
Mujeres del Sol - Women of the Sun - is for women who carry their own warmth with them. Women who dress with intention rather than effort. Women stepping into a new chapter who know, quietly and clearly, what belongs to them.
It's for women like me.
I designed this collection with the same confidence I feel when I reach for something that fits not just the body but the person. Pieces that hold attention effortlessly, in the way of things that are simply, deeply right.
A Final Note
When I picked up my camera for those photographs - the ones you might have seen - I wanted you to see the person behind the brand. Because Del Mar is not a label. It's a feeling. The same one I've been chasing since I was twelve years old.
And I hope, when you wear it, you feel exactly that.
With love,
Caitri
Founder, Del Mar Resort
