Story of us
A true profile of a country should take into account its creative heartbeat, anywhere and everywhere. Welcome a new cadre of local design talent reflecting the true breadth of Australia’s people and stories. By Alice Birrell and Katrina Trinh.
TALENT KARIS ZANETTA
Having a collection sponsored by Liberty London, mining a rich family history and tackling the mainstream fashion conversation is generally the domain of big-name designers, but for Karis Zanetta Cheng, it’s all in her third-ever collection. The University of Technology Sydney graduate draws inspiration from her childhood growing up in Australia, and tracing her lineage to New Zealand, 1970s Singapore, Malaysia and China, describing herself as a ‘third culture kid’. “It is the idea that when you grow up outside of your parents’ culture, your birth culture and adopted culture merge to form your own unique third culture,” she explains. Through her use of fabric and texture, she draws to the fore stories from places that, geographically, are part of our region but culturally remain outside the mainstream frame. “Australia is such a melting pot,” Cheng says. “And we should celebrate this within our fashion landscape.” Her joyful pastiche of textiles tap the nostalgia in old family photos but, also, the lost flotsam of everyday life they capture. A texture seen on a pot plant, or the baking bricks of Singapore’s streets inform fabric, the city’s maritime connection informs shapes – a jumpsuit is reminiscent of naval uniforms, like those her grandfather wore during three decades on the seas. Micro florals are lifted from Singaporean window-screen patterns overlaid with boxy checks Cheng found on an old shirt of her father’s. The Liberty prints too, she points out, demonstrate the potent influence of Asian-Pacific cultures on the rest of the world – “Art Nouveau prints whose ornamental style are in part inspired by traditional Chinese and Japanese flat-painting techniques,” she says. As a child, Cheng used to wrestle with her multifaceted heritage but now “I’ve come to celebrate [it]”, she says. “It affords me a unique perspective and is an endless and rich source of creative inspiration.” AB
NORTH
Hilda Nakamarra Rogers, in Yuendumu, a town 350 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, paints for her grandchildren and son. “I’ve been painting for a long time,” she says. She paints bush tucker stories or “seed dreaming”, tales passed down over millennia, and now on the clothing of Darwin label North, which includes the favourite piece of director Crystal Thomas. A jumpsuit in black with Nakamarra Rogers’s pale blue and white brushstrokes, it carries ancient cultural meanings. “I feel very honoured wearing it,” Thomas says. Not Indigenous herself, but with a board that includes Indigenous members like Samara Fernandez Brown – a Warlpiri woman who edits the label’s community publication – she founded North as a way to honour First Nations stories. Six years in, and with a third collection, North has played a reviving role: speaking with a senior artist from the Tiwi Islands, Bernadette Mungatopi, Thomas learnt that screen-printing had stopped at the local art centre. “[Mungatopi’s] dream was to see her family’s designs on fabric and homewares and fashion,” she remembers. “It was very emotional when the samples were ready and they got passed around the community.” Fashion has been a conduit, an avenue of discovery to the artists who work with the label. “Prior you could only see Indigenous art if it were displayed in your home or at a gallery. Now you can see it everywhere,” says Fernandez Brown. “I hope people understand that Indigenous Australia is an absolute gift.” A member of the Indigenous Art Code, which promotes ethical trading, North is a line from creatives like Nakamarra Rogers to the rest of the world. “I hope they learn about my dreaming,” she says. “Learn where my parents come from.” AB