Brisbane designer, artist and author Rachel Burke at home in her studio. Credit: Markus Ravik
The crowd outside Kelvin Grove’s La Boite Theatre is a swirl of colour and texture – hot pinks and pale blues, tight-fitting sequin dresses and patchwork skirts.
There are glints of expression in every direction, but one outfit stands out above the rest: a brilliantly elaborate dress crafted from pastel silk ribbons.
Given the occasion – the premiere of Rachel Burke’s Fancy Long Legs for Brisbane Festival – it could only be worn by one person, the queen of colour herself.
“I think there is an energy of punk to being so yourself that it’s so eye-catching and people stare at you,” Rachel says.
“It can be confronting for people to dare to be that sculptural in the world.”
Rachel Burke (centre) with the cast of Fancy Long Legs, the show adapted from her children’s book of the same name for this year’s Brisbane Festival. All outfits pictured were designed and made by Burke. Credit: Jade Ellis
At her local coffee shop, a hole-in-the-wall in a suburban street on Brisbane’s northside, Rachel is only moderately pared back.
The designer, artist and author is wearing a chequered pink and black dress over a stripey long-sleeved skivvy. Heart-shaped sunglasses rest on her head. Convention would call the combination a clash. On Rachel, it’s art.
She remembers the moment, about seven years ago, when she first realised her own outfits were the best advertisement for her brand.
“I was going to this event and wearing [one of my] tinsel dresses, before they were super popular,” she says.
“I knew people were going to stare at me, which they did ... but then something happened, and I actually felt really powerful to just be myself.”
Tinsel is an integral part of the Rachel Burke story.
Raised in Melbourne, Rachel moved to Brisbane aged 15. She returned to Victoria after high school to study musical theatre, but dropped out after a year.
“I didn’t have the triple-threat discipline. The only thing I could think of that I loved as much as performance was making costumes.”
Rachel Burke’s world of wonder: from dresses and jackets crafted from tinsel to entire outfits assembled from bows. Credit: Markus Ravik
So she moved back to her parents’ place in Kedron and, armed with a sewing machine, started making clothes in their garage.
At first, her sewing skills needed some work – “I had been very hot-glue savvy until that point,” she admits – so she set a goal to make a dress every week for 20 weeks.
“I raised $5000 for charity which, at the time, felt like a million dollars ... I decided to do it again the following year, but make a dress every day and keep a blog about it.”
It caught the attention of fashion boutique Princess Polly and retailer Universal Store. Soon, she became Universal’s head of womenswear design. “And then I went out on my own.”
About that time, she met Patience Hodgson, then-frontwoman of Brisbane band The Grates, who wore a tinsel jacket while performing at Splendour in the Grass. That was a turning point.
Rachel Burke (left) with Patience Hodgson from The Grates.Credit: @imakestagram
Rachel has since designed tour costumes for Kesha, outfits for Beyoncé’s children, an upcycled birthday suit for Harry Styles and the “Barbie outfit” worn by Cate Blanchett at this year’s Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards on the Gold Coast.
She traces back her love of eccentric design, of crafting out of tinsel and pompoms, to a magpie-like childhood obsession with shiny things.
“It’s so fun to see the cottagecore fairy movement come back, because that was me as a child,” she says.
“I’m so grateful that I have my crafts to heal me because I get so much solace out of making,” Rachel says. “The art therapy is real.”Credit: Markus Ravik
“I have this visual of me in year one, in the art room, filling my pockets with sequins, and the teacher putting a hook finger in the back of my smock and pulling me back.
“I just needed to have it.”
Rachel admits there’s a childlike element to her colourful style. But her fashion is for adults, who she believes should be open to joyful dressing – “getting in touch with that inner child” – too.
Her designs have developed a cult-like following, resonating with a broad demographic. You’re as likely to see one of her outfits on a night out in Fortitude Valley as you are at a red carpet event.
“I used to put labels on the jackets warning: ‘These jackets are a conversation starter. Introverts beware.’
“I think it’s natural that people want to have a good time.”
A bride wearing a “custom puff reception dress” by Rachel Burke on her wedding day.Credit: @imakestagram
Stories of customers wearing her tinsel jackets to weddings and celebrations come as a delight.
“That was a surprise,” she says. “People would hang it on their wall … one woman got hers encased in a perspex box.”
A lot has happened since Rachel started sewing in her parents’ garage more than 10 years ago. An icon in her own right, she’s now also a parent herself to a five-year-old son.
“I’m so lucky to have a kindergartener. I’m so inspired by him and his little friends and that freedom of play, and just making magic in the mundanity of life,” she says.
And while she’s enjoying her full-circle return to the theatre, her debut follows a less-than-shiny chapter.
Last year, Rachel and her husband Tom went through a gruelling period of pregnancy loss that took an enormous mental and physical toll.
“Motherhood has been a rollercoaster. I love being a parent,” she says.
“But last year was a big year of learning, and it was also sad. [So] I decided this year that I was going to just take the year off.”
Instead of spending the year undergoing IVF treatment, she’s been devoting 2024 to her creative projects. “I was like, we could actually just make some lemonade out of something that was really difficult.”
In true Rachel fashion, art and creativity have been the catharsis following a painful year.Credit: Markus Ravik
Fancy Long Legs was the first glittery silver lining. An art show exploring themes of pregnancy loss, opening early next year, will be the next.
“Maybe that time that would have been filled with a child is now going to be filled with creative endeavours and adventure,” she says.
“I’m so grateful that I have my crafts to heal me because I get so much solace out of making. The art therapy is real. And if I didn’t have that, I don’t know what I would do.”
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