Garments created by QUT students with a brief and textiles from the HopeVale Art and Culture Centre are on show at the Australian Embassy in Paris this month as part of an exhibition that celebrates Indigenous fashion.
The garments are from the annual HopeVale x QUT collaboration that links the university’s fashion students with HopeVale – a prominent Indigenous art centre in far north Queensland.
They were designed and made by four QUT students using fabric screen printed with vibrant designs by talented HopeVale artists. Part of the 2019 Wuubul Buii Collection, the garments were also showcased that year on the runway at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.
The four outfits were selected for the travelling Bendigo Art Gallery exhibition, Piinpi: Contemporary Australian Indigenous Fashion, which is on show at the Australian embassy in Paris to shine a light on a design movement that is fast becoming a national fashion phenomenon. The exhibition was also staged at the National Museum of Australia last year.
A virtual tour of the current exhibition at the Australian Embassy has also been released and showcases the work from ‘l’Universite de Technologie du Queensland’ and HopeVale.
The young fashion designers involved have now graduated from QUT and were excited when they found out that their work would be on show in Paris.
Lily Mergard and Carlyndal Slight–Di Tullio are two of those graduates.
Carlyndal designed and constructed a flowing top using Seed Pods linen fabric, designed by artist Grace Rosendale, and Lily made the outfit’s trousers using Fig Tree linen fabric by Madge Bowen.
Lily also has a second jacket and trouser outfit in the exhibition, which is teamed with a double-sided hat made by Carlyndal. The three pieces were constructed with Wanda Gibson’s Magpie Geese linen fabric and Madge Bowen’s Fig Tree fabric.
Lily, who is a Redlands College graduate, was named Queensland Fashion Design Graduate of the Year 2021 by the Design Institute of Australia after completing her QUT course with first class honours.
She said highlights of her degree had included a study tour to South Korea and Hong Kong in 2018, being a wardrobe intern with Opera Queensland in 2020, and the HopeVale project in 2019.
“I feel honoured to have been recognised as a contributor to the project and I am so excited to see Piinpi be an ambassador in Paris for Australian fashion,” Lily said.
“Working on the QUT X HopeVale Project during my studies was such a unique opportunity – to experience working in collaboration with real world artists while forging my own path at university was an honour to say the least.
“It’s a designer’s dream, really … to work alongside fellow creatives, on a completely one-off project with one-off screen-printed textiles. There were limitless possibilities of how the collection could turn out, and that was exciting.”
Since graduating at the end of 2020, Lily has done freelance patternmaking, cutting and sewing for several small businesses and private clients, and currently works at Lorna Jane HQ in design and production.
Carlyndal, who went to Maleny State High, has been working in fashion retail and as a QUT fashion tutor since graduating university. She is also working on her own label, Tullio, and pursuing freelance design and music projects.
“COVID threw a spanner in loose plans of what I would have liked to have done after graduating, but I am grateful for that as I have found a side passion DJ-ing which has connected me to a beautiful music community that we have in Brisbane,” she said.
“It’s also given me to the time to slow down and focus on producing some collaborative fashion projects with local designers for the future.
“I enjoy tutoring as it’s always so different every day, and I am still learning continuously through guiding and communicating to others in how they can develop their design style or how they can achieve their goals to either their assessments or various tasks.
“The HopeVale project was one of the most memorable units I did in my degree. It makes me very proud to have been able to produce a garment that shares a larger concept than just materiality and fashion, but rather showcasing the Indigenous talent and artistry of the HopeVale elders. Now it’s being shared and loved by a much larger overseas audience.”
The QUT X HopeVale Project is an annual QUT work integrated learning project that enables students to connect digitally with the HopeVale community and work to a design brief.
The other QUT graduates whose work has been displayed in Paris are Elise Baglot, who designed and made a skirt with Buthaya (Bush Lady Apples) fabric by Esmay Bowen (garment pictured at top on the right and below left), and Joash Teo, who designed and made a dress using Seed Pods fabric by Grace Rosendale (pictured at top on the left).
QUT fashion lecturer and iconic Australian designer Lydia Pearson said the collaboration had exceeded everyone’s dreams.
“It was already a very exciting collaboration, with the opportunity to show the work at CIAF,” she said.
“When the Bendigo Gallery acquired the garments – after having seen them on display at Artisan gallery in Brisbane – we thought that was the best it could get. But to end up with them on display in Paris is hard to believe.
“Thanks to the brilliant artists from HopeVale and to our talented students, this collaboration has exceeded anyone’s dreams.”
Images: Mannequin photos courtesy of Bendigo Art Gallery. Student photos and creative process images courtesy of Lily and Carlyndal.
QUT Media contacts:
- Mechelle McMahon, media@qut.edu.au
- After hours, 0407 585 901 or media@qut.edu.au
