Women find refuge in kaleidoscope of raiment

IT is just a humble lounge room in southwest Sydney but it could almost be the backstage of an international catwalk.

Lemlem Asefa, centre, prepares for the Best African Dress Award with Margaret Ghirmay, left, Tinsae Elsdon, Rosemary Kariuki, Lebba Bawoh, Caroline Muisyo, Isatak and Yarrie Bangura. Picture: Jane Dempster

IT is just a humble lounge room in southwest Sydney but it could almost be the backstage of an international catwalk.

Fabrics imported from Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia and Somalia are much sought after in the ethnic melting pot of Auburn and surrounding suburbs in western Sydney, and intense demand for the handmade fabrics is spawning a fledgling industry led predominantly by female refugees and new migrants.

It is traditional in Africa to be measured by a tailor, who will make your clothes from scratch, rather than to buy off the rack. Many African migrants follow this custom here but there is only one African-born tailor working in Sydney, says Somalian-born community worker Fatma Isir. And the waiting list for his services stretches to three months.

"The queue for him is just enormous. You've got to kind of bribe him to get in," Ms Isir says. "The Africans don't need an address to go and to see him because everybody knows him."

But there is some competition on the horizon for this overwhelmed Bankstown tailor.

Once a week in an Auburn community centre -- in an initiative supported by Auburn council and Lidcombe TAFE -- sewing machines are being pulled from a cupboards and set up on tables.

Women who have come from African nations stretching from Sudan to Liberia are taking matters into their own hands and learning to create the designs that are steadily increasing demand not just within Sydney's African migrant belt but in the wider community as well.

"They thought no one was interested but other people, other cultures, are interested in the clothes as well," Ms Isir says.

"And it's a way for these women to socialise. It's brought so much joy to them, understanding their own clothing, dressing up.

"Now they want to learn to make the dresses themselves and bring the material in from Africa.

"In Africa, it's the women who do all the business, women who look after the homes -- the women really do the hard yakka. Here, there's lots of barriers but they've still got the skills, and all they need is support."

Somalian refugee Saada Abdikarim -- last year's winner of a coveted best dress award at the annual African Women Dinner Dance, held in Sydney -- says fashion and beauty are taken seriously in the African community.

"The Africans love clothing. It's all about the colour," she says. "For the women, we are talking about tea, food, dressing up. For the men, it's all politics, politics, and the past, the past, the past."