MAARA COLLECTIVE

Julie Shaw from

Award-winning designer and Yuwaalaraay woman Julie Shaw might craft her clothes from exquisite high-end silks and linens, but she’s the first to admit nothing beats a good old-school cork board for the creative process.

“I’m constantly sketching up ideas and pinning them to inspiration boards,” says the Sydney-based founder of luxe resort wear label Maara Collective, two-time winner at the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, 2021 Australian Fashion Laureate finalist, and standout debutant at AAFW21.

“My design process is tactile and my studio is filled with hand-drawn sketches, fabric swatches, tear-sheets, woven mats, even dilly bags brought back after trips to Arnhem Land over the years,” says Shaw, who grew up in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales.

With the celebration of First Nations talent gaining long-overdue momentum, Shaw is rightfully front and centre of the wave, though it’s not one she’s ever wanted to ride alone. Maara refers to “hands” in her traditional language, a nod to the brand’s many-hands ethos.

“Collaboration is foundational to the way that I work and the reason I started [the label] in 2019,” Shaw explains. “Each collection, I collaborate with an Indigenous artist to license or commission the feature print, which often informs the design process, from silhouette and form through to colour palette and trims.” Design elements such as tying, knotting and weaving, all done by hand, are also a nod to the many generations of artisans who now inform her creative process. “I also instinctively look to Country for inspiration throughout my whole design process, whether that be through use of colour that reflects the Australian landscape, the way the light touches the land, the sun rising or sea foam gathering on the sand.”

Ochre yellow, opal blue, sandstone and red earth are just a few of the hues she’s incorporated into the ombre dye on silk technique that has become her signature. “The design studio is my creative haven and when I sit down to start a new collection I get everything out in front of me and sift through the swatches, sketches, feathers, shells and weavings, then let these pieces speak to me and inspire me.”

“I INSTINCTIVELY LOOK TO COUNTRY FOR INSPIRATION THROUGHOUT MY WHOLE DESIGN PROCESS”

not producing something they see on shelves.” But good design, he says, comes from many failures and the process of exploration.

What’s next for Gogos? “I want to be involved in lots of things. I want to do installations at galleries. I want to do events. I want to do runways. I just want to throw myself into individual projects that are completely unique.”

His clothes might be described as gender fluid, but discipline fluid is a more apt label for this creative.