In the early 1960, the original hand made and hand painted outfit designs, made by Mary Shackman, and designed by Anthony Kendal were sold in London, Paris, New York, Dubai, and it was said to be the first Australian label on sale in New York.
Today, Mary Shackman’s textile designs are been used by most of Australian top fashion designers from Kenneth Pirrie, Sportsgirl, Mark and Geoffrey, Carla Zampatti, of the 1960s to Anthony Kendal and Nicola Finetti of the 2000s, to create a modern, fashionable and sophisticated outfits. Mary’s designs ranges from large pattern prints, to bright colored prints, to the hand painted textiles. Many artists or creative people draw inspiration from one place/thing or the other, Mary Shackman draws hers from landscapes, flowers, faces, geometric shapes and graphic images.
Mary’s textiles and designs are not the only ones that are used by Australian designers; there is also the Tapa Cloth. Tapa was brought into Australia in the 1900s from Samoa, Fiji Islands, and Tonga.
According to the Fijian, the Tapa cloth is produced by kneading or beating together, and then the pieces are joined together with starch paste to form a large piece of cloth. The ink and stencils cut from a banana tree are used to make print patterns on the Tapa cloth. The brown dye that is usually used is gotten from the sap of d mangrove tree while the black dye is gotten from kerosene lamps.
Australian indigenes also produced textiles by themselves. In 1977, when techniques were introduced, women were seen producing very long length of fabrics, with the Australian culture as their inspiration. This was further extended into the production of indigenous clothes, jewelries and other accessories.
These few Australian textiles are been used by top Australian designers to create beautiful, sophisticated outfit, most of which is been paraded during the Australian fashion week, and other fashion events world wide. They are not only worn by Australians, they are also worn by people from different parts of the world.
