Rockhampton’s fashion makers are très chic!
Published on 14 August 2017
The fever created by Rockhampton Art Gallery’s Coming into Fashion exhibition is set to hit an even higher pitch with the opening of two companion exhibitions starring regional artists, makers and creators.
Jewellers and Milliners: Rockhampton’s fashion makers and Pret-a-printer: Letterpress by The Officina Athelstane both take their cue from Coming into Fashion: A Century of Photography from Condé Nast and both represents a fashionably late opportunity to celebrate our own.
Pret-a-printer: Letterpress by The Officina Athelstane is a showcase of traditional letterpress processes with contemporary skill and composition by Rockhampton based letterpress printer, Derek Lamb while Jewellers and Milliners: Rockhampton’s fashion makers as the name suggests, profiles an array of handmade, bespoke designs produced in our Region.
Chair of Rockhampton Regional Council’s Community Services Committee, Cr Rose Swadling, said you don’t need to look far afield to find artists and artisans producing conceptually sophisticated and highly accomplished works.
“While we might have a tendency to look to the south or overseas when thinking of high end fashion, art and design, it is important to set our sights closer and embrace our own because we have so much genuine talent residing within our Region,” she said.
Derek Lamb has been producing work under The Officina Athelstane out of his studio in the Walter Reid Cultural Centre since April 2011. Derek’s interest in letterpress printing (the process of transferring ink to paper via raised letters) grew out of a passion for literature and fine editions which led to his acquisition of an 1887 Alexandra hand press.
In Pret-a-printer: Letterpress by The Officina Athelstane, the artefacts of letterpress are used to give expression to a quirky typographic exploration of things “fashion”. Pret-a-printer honours an off-the-peg method of design, where the printer produced something eye catching and original from a limited palette of (metal and wood) design elements employing both practical skill and imagination.
Jewellers and Milliners: Rockhampton’s fashion makers pays homage to local designers such as Kim Withers and Jacqueline Curran as well as offering an opportunity to purchase some of the season’s most fashionable product lines direct from the Gallery.
Full-time accountant, Kim Withers began her own millinery label, Art of the Hat as a mode of channelling her creative capacity and unleashing her love of fine millinery.
Specialising in beautiful, luxurious and unique hats and headpieces, Kim individually handcrafts each piece and has a selection of four works on display and for sale as part of the Jewellers and Milliners exhibition.
Jacqueline Curran is another feature artist in the Rockhampton fashion makers showcase and her jewellery collection, Tassels, is inspired by the extravagance and individuality of bird life.
Jacqueline has operated a small, freelance business focused on custom-design occasion pieces since graduating from a fine arts fashion and business marketing degree at QUT in 2011.
Jacqueline's use of haberdashery materials commonly incorporated in couture dressmaking takes four earring pairs and transforms them into small scale works of wearable art.
Pret-a-printer: Letterpress by The Officina Athelstane and Jewellers and Milliners: Rockhampton’s fashion makers
Merilyn Luck Gallery
Until 22 October 2017
Rockhampton Art Gallery is owned and operated by Rockhampton Regional Council.