Australian Fashion Week: Jessica Mauboy uses runway to ‘amplify voices’
The Australian idol says the runway is a vehicle for change, as she headlines Australian Fashion Week’s First Nations’ show.
No spectacle of fashion is complete without a celebrity appearance on the catwalk, and on the third day of Australian Fashion Week, Jessica Mauboy delivered.
The Australian singer returned to the stage for the David Jones Indigenous Fashion Projects Runway, performing beside seven First Nations designers featuring their collections.
Between vibrant garments and tailored silhouettes, Mauboy said the runway was a vehicle to “amplify the voices, stories and artistic expressions” of First Nations creatives.
“When I first started in the industry, the level of representation for First Nations artists and creatives in the media was far from what it is today – the progress I have witnessed is remarkable.”
The program, established in 2021 by the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation in partnership with David Jones, works to propel First Nations designers into the mainstream. Three years since its inception, one of the inaugural labels to feature in the program, Ngali, made history as the first Indigenous-owned label to host their own solo show earlier in the day.
For Darwin-born and raised Mauboy, an acting ambassador for DAAF, the project goes past the excitement of the high-octane performance and electric looks.
“It’s a responsibility I hold with great honour,” she said. “It deepens my connection to my Indigenous heritage.”
The ARIA-winning artist says carving out greater spaces of First Nations creatives has never been so pivotal, centring a “shared sense of appreciation for our community” among the general public, while “honouring and continuing to preserve and share the rich traditions and stories of our ancestors”.
“Art and culture provide a platform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, including myself, to explore and celebrate our identities,” Mauboy said.
Collections featured on the IFP runway span the canon of wardrobe necessities, from womenswear by Gammin Threads, Miimi & Jiinda and Lazy Girl Lingerie, to swimwear by Ihraa and KAMARA. Among the menswear designers debuting for the first time at the IFP is Gooreng Gooreng and South Sea islander woman Juanita Page, founder of Joseph & James.
The 31-year-old says her collections evoke First Nations’ “tens of thousands of years-long passion for their storytelling”.
“Having seven designers show their work to the mainstream says we’re not just one thing, we’re not a monolith, we all have our own voice,” she says.
“We’re all First Nations and there is this familial thread that runs through us, but it tells people that we’re all different and unique.”
Crafting a collection made up of “parts”, designed to be built up over time, Ms Page says she draws inspiration for her custom-developed fabrics and unifying colour palettes from something as simple as her own handwriting, to wider political movements.
Kamilaroi man and GALI Swimwear founder, David Leslie, 50, told The Australian “fashion is a great vehicle for change and a great way to convey messages in a stronger or softer sense”.
“It’s not uncommon to see brands communicating their messages through clothing,” Mr Leslie said.
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