Bendigo’s landmark exhibition of indigenous fashion

A contemporary indigenous fashion first for Bendigo, and VAMFF National Designer Awards finalists revealed.

Model wearing Grace Lillian Lee’s work Body Armour — A Weave of Reflection Pink and Orange from 2018. Photo: Wade Lewis Art.

The scope of contemporary indigenous fashion is as broad as the distances between its creators in the centre of Melbourne to the far reaches of the Kimberley. But come July, Bendigo Art Gallery is aiming to bring together those disparate styles into the first major exhibition of its kind.

Piinpi: Contemporary Indigenous Fashion will show more than 80 pieces by a range of artists. The exhibition is curated by Shonae Hobson, the gallery’s First Nations curator and a Kaantju woman whose family hails from eastern Cape York.

“A lot of people have said it’s long overdue,” Hobson tells Buzz.

“This is an important industry. There has been a lot of interest in the past few years. Also there has been a shift in the sense that a lot of the designs are about self-determination. It’s about passing on traditional cultural knowledge and continuing the living culture of storytelling but through textiles and beautiful wearable art.”

Hobson says that in the language of her grandmother Piinpi is “an expression for seasonal changes and regeneration of country”. As well as the economic and social benefits for its makers, the exhibition highlights broader industry issues.

“A lot of designers recycle materials and use natural plant fibres and bush dyes,” Hobson says. “Wastefulness is quite a big issue in the fashion industry, but indigenous people have always been about caring for country and this exhibition is about shedding light on that.”

The pieces range from the traditional, such as a possum-skin cloak made by local elder Rodney Carter — a skill “passed on through generations and a significant wear for mob living down here in southeast Australia” — to a sequined jumpsuit with Deadly written on the back from Teagan Cowlishaw’s label Aarli.

Other artists include Lyn-Al Young, known for her beautiful silk scarf artworks; artists from the Babbarra Women’s Centre who last year showed their textiles in Paris; and Grace Lillian Lee, whose colourful and contemporary take on weaving is coveted by institutions and customers. The artists come from all over Australia.

“It’s quite diverse in terms of the designers and artists we’ve included in the exhibition, (including) that influence of street art and street fashion which a lot of Aboriginal people today have adopted,” Hobson says.

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National Designer Award finalists revealed

We are less than a month away from the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival and Buzz is getting excited at the prospect. Buzz is hosting the Australian Fashion Summit, which means sit-down interviews with comedian Celeste Barber and expat US In Style editor Laura Brown, as well as insights from leading sustainability advocate Eva Kruse, chief executive of Global Fashion Agenda, which hosts the Copenhagen Fashion Summit.

Another big-ticket item of the week is the National Designer Award, long considered one of the leading indicators of emerging talent in Australian fashion. Past winners include Toni Maticevski, Romance Was Born, Dion Lee, P.E Nation and Christian Kimber.

Buzz is thrilled to reveal the shortlist for this year’s awards, which will be held on March 4, as judged by an industry panel that includes editors, designers and retail executives from lead sponsor David Jones. The finalists are activewear label Nagnata, womenswear labels Esse, Joslin and Jacinta James, and menswear brands Commas and Mndatory, a finalist last year.

National Designer Award finalist Esse.

The total prize pool is $120,000, only $10,000 of which is a cash prize — the rest is made up of mentoring, lookbook production and other practical assistance. In a significant move, for the first time David Jones will stock a capsule collection by the winner. There is an additional honorary award for sustainability, offered for the first time last year and won by Arnsdorf.

VAMFF runs from March 4 to 14. See vamff.com.au for tickets and events.