Territory rig
WITH HELP FROM THE MADDING CROWD Crowd-funding schemes are helping Territory fashion businesses flourish
There’s no doubt the internet has revolutionised the way we peruse and purchase fashion. But beyond shopping online, it’s flipped the entire industry on its head and given every chapter of the supply chain new opportunities and challenges.
It has opened up the world for smaller players and cottage industries to start business at a lower cost than what a bricks and mortar shopfront may cost and, as local Territory labels have uncovered, it’s a platform for funding too. Crowd-funding is certainly en vogue for fashion start-ups, and is the new roadside stall for donations.
Magpie Goose, a new fashion social enterprise launched in Katherine by Maggie McGowan, crafts bold statement clothing from textiles designed and printed in Aboriginal communities. It launched its funding crusade, hoping for $20,000, on Kickstarter. By the end of the campaign more than 600 pledges were made and some $100,000 raised.
The funding will help Magpie Goose not only brighten your wardrobe, but contribute to the growth of the art centres it partners with, providing large-scale bulk orders and creating further training and employment opportunities for artists, screen printers and designers.
Magpie Goose is one of more than 120,000 projects Kickstarter has provided a fundraising platform for since the website launched in April 2009. Kickstarter claims 12 million people have backed a project and US$3 billion has been pledged, from every corner of the globe.
This week, Gunbalanya community’s Injalak Arts wraps up its Pozible crowd-funding campaign for ‘affordable foot art,’ a project the centre is hoping to raise $20,000 for.
Similar to Kickstarter, Pozible gives Injalak access to a global audience to fund its Territorian-flavoured campaign — fairtrade thongs printed with indigenous designs. The proposed range includes designs that have been adapted from artworks by local artists.
Such campaigns provide new business avenues for art centres such as Injalak in the quieter wet season, where rain slows business down, and also raise awareness of the centre and its artists. Learn more about the Injalak Arts campaign at pozible.com/project/injalakethical-art-thongs