‘From dusk to dawn’ was the theme of this year’s Country to Couture showcase of Indigenous fashion, and the designers certainly delivered, sending a wide range of looks down the runway from glamorous evening wear to cool athleisure — but all with a culturally significant story to tell. Now in its sixth year, Country to Couture is part of the annual Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair (DAAF) and features collections from Indigenous designers as well as collaborations between First Nation
ions artists and non-Indigenous designers from across Australia.
“It’s a celebration of the excitement and creative energy that is coming out of First Nations communities all over Australia,” David Giles-Kaye, Indigenous Fashion Projects lead at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation, told Inside Retail.
Sponsored by DAAF and Country Road, this year’s event featured 13 collections, including the first-ever accessories collection from Numbulwar Numburindi Arts, and an athleisure collection from Dunjiba Fashions, a newly launched initiative by the Dunjiba Community Artists in South Australia with support from Ku Arts.
Wurundjeri designer Denni Francisco, whose ready-to-wear label Ngali won the Fashion Design Award at the National Indigenous Fashion Awards on Tuesday evening, and Rebecca Barlow, a Ballardong, Whadjuk woman from the Nyungar nation, who showed her upcycled fashion brand Deadly Denim at New York Fashion Week this year, also sent collections down the runway this year.
“It’s such a broad range of collections, and some very deep cultural stories that are being told through the garments,” Giles-Kaye said, pointing to the work of Anindilyakwa Arts, an Aboriginal Art Centre on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory, which made some of its dresses out of bark.
Compared to Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, where DAAF’s Indigenous Fashion Projects had a showcase with brands such as Ngali, Liandra Swim and Maara Collective, Country to Couture caters to more boutique labels and even one-off collections that may not be available for purchase.
“Most of what you see is very bespoke and is there to celebrate the textiles or the design or art itself,” Claire Summers, executive director of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation, told Inside Retail.
Creating opportunities for First Nations creatives
While more Indigenous-led fashion labels are starting to appear on mainstream runways, Country to Couture continues to set itself apart as a celebration of First Nations culture as much as a fashion show.
This year’s show started with a Welcome to Country by the Garramilla Dancers, who brought several generations of dancers on stage to illustrate how children learn culture from their elders. In between the collections, there were performances by Indigenous drag queens Foxxy Empire, Shaniqua Empire and Sherri Lee Volua.
“The event is [as] much to entertain and immerse audiences as it is to showcase incredible fashion that has come from all over Australia,” Summers said.
“We choreograph each collection to bring a bit of story to that particular designer, their background, their histories, their different cultures.”
All the models who walked the runway were locals cast through a callout on social media, which Nathan McGuire, a Whadjuk Noongar model who has shot campaigns for Country Road and Outland Denim, helped promote.
“Some careers in modelling have started through this, so it’s not just about the collections, it’s the whole experience of being connected into something like this,” Giles-Kaye said.
Drawing a crowd of over 1,000 people despite the Covid-19 lockdowns which kept many in New South Wales and Queensland from attending, Country to Couture reflects a “thirst” for Indigenous fashion, according to Summers.
“This is so much more than a movement. This is something that the industry is really taking hold of, and it’s here to stay,” she said.
“We’re going to see much more Indigenous fashion grace our catwalks, that’s for sure.”