Behind the stunning runway collections are an endless team of people
working with the designers to make it all happen. Fabric design house
Sixhands is part of the entourage behind Australia’s well-known labels.
In
business for just one and a half years, they have created exclusive
one-off designs for 19 labels and at Rosemount AustralianFashion Week
in April their work was on the runway for Flamingo Sands, Ginger and
Smart, Mad Cortes, One Teaspoon and Ruby Smallbone.
“We aspire
to be the new Florence Broadhursts of fabric design. We aim to create
an Australian aesthetic without being Australiana and we really believe
designers shouldn’t have to go overseas to find great prints for their
collections,” said Alecia Jensen, one third of the three-woman team.
Together
with Brianna Pike & Anna Harves, Jensen graduated from the Bachelor
of Design (Fashion & Textiles) at UTS in 2004. After separate
adventures – Bree and Anna in clothing design and production and Alecia
in graphic design – they came back together to take a small business
course and create their own company.
Now they spend around 12
hours a day together, and find working in such a creative and
supportive environment not just successful, but inspiring. Their studio
in Surry Hills is filled with beautiful pieces that keep the team
stimulated andthe ideas flowing.
“It’s really important to have
a positive and inspiring environment to work in, especially when you’re
trying to be creative. You need a place that you want to keep coming
back to, so we have a massive inspiration board that we pin interesting
ideas to. The location doesn’t matter that much, it’s working with
great people that keeps me inspired.”
The biggest challenge for
the young company is having their designs stolen. They get around the
issue by creating and selling their one-off patterns to individual
labels. Once the label has bought the design, it is then up to them to
protect it.
Alecia shared a horror story of one Sixhands design,
which a popular Australian streetwear label had bought, being sold off
to another Australian label by an unscrupulous manufacturer whilst in
production in China. The label, which had initially commissioned the
exclusive design, received a shock when the pattern appeared in store
on the second label’s pieces before their own had even been completed.
Sixhands
will show their new interior fabrics and wallpapers including the
beautiful magenta, black and white design featuring black cockatoos
‘Parlour Paradiso’ at Design Made Trade in Melbourne in July.
www.sixhands.com.auwww.stateofdesign.com.au/designmadetrade
Photos by Caroline Garcia