Cranes point to booming market
Designs on grandma’s tablecloths ‘Tower of Power’ gets down to business
ONLY a truly skilled designer could make your grandma’s curtains look fashionable, but Wendy Thorpe does it with style.
The talented vintage fashion addict can transform anything from an old tablecloth to retro curtains into unique works of art.
“The materials I use are just anything vintage – mostly old embroidered or crochet tablecloths, curtains, tapestry material,” she said.
“I’ve made hundreds of pieces – all one-of-a-kind of course – kimonos, pretty little tops, lace pants, fulllength skirts, dresses. They usually start around $30 – some pieces go up to $150 depending on how much I pay for the material and how much work I put in.”
Under the name “relovedtreasuresvintage”, Mrs Thorpe and her daughter Marley step back in time with their sales methods as well, opting for markets instead of an online store.
“We do purely markets like Gold Coast Design Collective Coolangatta and Kingscliff Lantern Market,” Mrs Thorpe said.
“Nothing is online – what you see is what you get.
“My daughter Marley and I started my label six years ago and I knew I wanted it to be recyclable.
“I used to wear a lot of clothes made out of tablecloths and crochet and I’d wear them to festivals.” THE Gold Coast’s residential market is booming, with most of the 34 cranes towering over the city working on housing projects.
According to the latest crane index, the Gold Coast has seen a steady increase of cranes since March 2015, with 17 new ones between March and June this year – 85 per cent of them on residential buidling sites. But 13 disappeared as projects finished.
The remaining projects include two hotels and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Athletes Village. NEARLY 900 Queensland public servants have begun the largest move of government personnel in the state’s history as they shift from their current offices to the state’s new “Tower of Power”. The workers will finish the move across to the new Executive Building at 1 William Street, Brisbane, over the weekend, ready for work on Monday.
The controversial 41-storey tower, planned by the former Newman government, will eventually house 5000 public servants, consolidated under one roof from 20 other offices.