• Media releases and briefings
• New textile company a winner for changing Bilby
• Interview with Gwen Fallenby on 3BBR – socially responsible enterprises for local business
• Briefing – transcript of speech by Gwen Fallenby announcing expansion of Material Designs as a social enterprise
  • Hi. I’m Gwen Fallenby of Material Designs, and I had a really great childhood here in Bilby. It’s a fantastic place to grow up. I can remember when I was a kid going to the graveyard at night for a dare. Imagine it! Full moon, wind whistling, me tripping over old gravestones and everything looking so different in the dark. I really freaked out when there was this chain rattling sound from behind Ben Travers’s grave. And guess who it was? The local town joker, Dan Lambert, who was there to make sure I’d followed through on the dare.

    So, why talk to you about childhood in Bilby? Because there are some people here who haven’t had a chance to enjoy childhood. I’m talking about the resettlement program for about twenty Sudanese families. It’s part of a government initiative to provide opportunities for refugees in regional towns and businesses.

    Our team at Material Designs are helping them out. At the moment, our Sudanese workers are living in temporary housing right near the plant. But soon, there be more jobs for locals, building low-cost housing, helping with education and literacy programs and sorting out health issues. This is a big chance for Bilby. We haven’t really had any major settler groups since the Gold Rushes. It’s also a big opportunity to share the lifestyle we’ve got here.

    My mother, Myfanwy, set up Material Designs as a way to keep local women in work. As well as being a bit of an entrepreneur, she has also been the one to encourage me to explore African and South-East Asian opportunities. Although Material Designs has grown, it’s still a local business, part of a community that I know will be keen to give that big country town welcome and offer great support to our newest residents.

 

Useful Links – Australian Clothing and Textiles Industry

Design Institute of Australia	http://www.dia.org.au
Australian Fashion Council	https://ausfashioncouncil.com/
Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia	http://www.tfia.com.au/home
National Wool Museum	https://www.geelongaustralia.com.au/nwm/default.aspx
The Australian Museum of Clothing and Textiles	https://mgnsw.org.au/organisations/australian-museum-clothing-and-textiles/
Powerhouse Museum	http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/hsc/paperbark/

 

Useful Links – Social Enterprise and Small Business Support

Business Victoria	https://www.business.vic.gov.au/setting-up-a-business/business-structure/social-enterprise
Design Institute of Australia, Hall of Fame	https://www.design.org.au/about-us/dia-hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame
Australian Design Alliance, Helping small businesses	http://australiandesignalliance.com/casestudy/the-textile-and-fashion-hub-a-place-for-businesses-to-develop/
Sample Design Studios	http://www.dexigner.com/directory/cat/Textile-Design/Design-Studios/loc/Australia.html
Government and associated agencies for small businesses	The Business Enterprise Centre network – information, guides and advice for small business people on start up, growing business, software, banking and finance – also offers free advisory service – http://www.becaustralia.org.au/ Small Business Association of Australia: https://smallbusinessassociation.com.au/ Women’s Network Australia – national networking association providing women in all areas of business with a forum to share information, ideas and knowledge – also tips for starting and running a successful small business – www.womensnetwork.com.au
Social enterprise information	Mission Australia, social enterprises: https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/what-we-do/employment-skills-training/social-enterprise The Social Studio, an example of a social enterprise in Collingwood: http://www.thesocialstudio.org/ Social Change Central, Top Stories: Australian Social Entrepreneurs of 2018: https://www.socialchangecentral.com/top-stories-2018/ Social Traders, create jobs for disadvantaged Australians by linking business and government to social enterprises: https://www.socialtraders.com.au/

Gorgeous Textiles

…Australia’s unique fashions have relied upon textiles, the colour and the cloth, as much as garment type, styles and looks. A wide variety of Australian fashion textiles – hand-coloured, printed and painted silks, woven wool, dyed discharge and devore prints, ground velvets, and ochred designs based on traditional Aboriginal body paintings have all contributed to the definition of modern Australian fashion.

African-inspired designs are our exciting new direction. We are looking at African quilts, patterns for bolts of cloth and traditional colour dyeing.

Our design concepts are drawn from West African across to Sudanese design. Some examples of African textiles:

• Adire, indigo cloth from the Yoruba of SW Nigeria 
• Andinkra, stamp printed cloth from the Asante of Ghana 
• Asafo, appliqued flags from the Fante of Ghana 
• Aso-Oke, woven strip cloth from the Yoruba of Nigeria 
• Bark cloth, painted from the Buganda of Uganda 
• Bogolan, mud cloth from the Bamana (Mande) of Mali 
• Dida, raffia cloth from the Dida of the Ivory Coast 
• Fila, dye-painted cloth from the Senufo of the Ivory Coast 
• Kaasa, woollen blanket from the Fulani of Niger Delta, Mali 
• Kente, woven appliqued cloth from the Asante and Ewe of Ghana 
• Kuba, Shoowa cloth from the Kuba of the DRC, (Zaire) 
• Ndop, resist dyed indigo cloth from the Bamileke of Cameroon

Further viewing:

Indigo resist dyed cloth from Yorubaland, Nigeria, exhibition at Victoria & Albert Museum, London: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/adire-indigo-resist-dyed-cloth-from-yorubaland-nigeria/

African textiles — Contemporary African Art: https://www.contemporary-african-art.com/african-textiles.html