Tag Archives: floral fabric

‘House of Vintage’ Textile Collection by Amy Jessup

We couldn’t be more excited to announce that our next featured artist of The Designer Project will be none other than the wonderful designer Amy Jessup!

Amy is a Textile and Surface Designer based on the beautiful Gold Coast and creates her designs under the studio name Midnight Rise Design. Her favourite part of the design process is the over-exciting feeling that you have just thought of something super special and seeing beautiful products come to life in unique, handcrafted designs. How absolutely wonderful!

Her style is a modern twist on vintage concepts. This collection was inspired by everything and anything vintage. She has always been drawn to vintage homes, swimwear and furniture. Her studio is her favourite room in the house! It’s the inspiration and motivation to create every day.

Amy’s ‘House of Vintage’ collection is full of balanced designs using a mixture of different mediums and we’re so excited to have them all available in our Fabric Shop!

‘Mimi’ is such a bubbly, feminine print. It was created with the vision to be raw, created by sketches to keep every wiggle and bump as a personal touch. It features a divine contrast of navy and baby pink with slight shadowing.

‘Mimi’ is such a perfect print for fashion accessories like tote bags or scarves!

‘Posie Citrus’ is a fun, zesty and alternative floral print. Designed in a soft and summery colour palette makes for a versatile design.

We think ‘Posie’ would look absolutely adorable for swimwear!

‘Wild Daisie’ is a warm loving print, the details were inspired by vintage Botanics and bloomed in an Autumn pallet. If you desire to add warmth to your products, Wild Daise is for you.

‘Wild Daisie’ is just the perfect print for any fashion garment, we can picture how beautiful it would look as a long flowing dress.

‘Chic Slither’, where Terrazzo and leopard collide. This balanced design is layered in natural browns. We love this minimal animal print inspired design and think it would work well for both fashion garments as well as home and interior DIY projects!

‘Zephyr’ is a watercolour design that puts a vintage twist on a classic animal print. Make a statement with ‘Zephyr Rust’ with this warm and powerful colour pallet or for more of subtle statement, there’s ‘Zephyr Stone’; full of Soft, elegant and earthy tones.

We think these prints would make the most beautiful bedding or blankets!

The possibilities are endless with Amy’s ‘House of Vintage’ collection and we hope the above suggestions have helped get the ideas flowing! Each of Amy’s gorgeous designs can be found in our Fabric Shop with the minimum order for printing just 1m!

Amanda Laing – The Designer Project

We have absolutely loved sharing these beautiful floral designs by Brisbane-based designer Amanda Laing and hope you’ve loved her designs as much as we have! To coincide with Amanda’s “Garden of Memories” collection being made available to all of our customers through our Fabric Shop online, the artist herself has put together a guest blog which further explains her one of a kind approach to creating surface patterns and what inspires her work.

Keep reading to find out more about Amanda Laing and her stunning designs!

Amanda Laing

I’m Amanda Laing, a surface pattern designer from Brisbane, Qld. My inspiration comes from my surroundings whether they be the natural world or the built environment. I am always finding things that catch my eye and love to express it visually through colour, form and pattern.

“Rosie – Watercolour Painting”

With a background in Interior Design and Art teaching I design surface patterns for both paper and fabric. Paprly is my small business designing for wrapping paper, gift cards and tea towels.

“Eloide + Pink Petal Gouache Paintings”

I teach art workshops in primary schools and just completed a graduate certificate in visual arts. I also have a background in commercial Interior Design and Art Teaching. When it comes to surface pattern design, I’m pretty much self-taught and constantly being driven by the need to design and make things.

“Daisy Drop – Fabric Design”

Personally, I prefer hand drawing to digital and use a wide range of media from pen, watercolour, gouache and paint. Experimenting with textures and layering is also something that I love, as well as experimenting with different mediums. As a result, my style is wide and varied. My designs are both naïve and realistic prints but always with the aim of trying to create unique and original work.

You can check out more of Amanda’s work via her Instagram @mandalouau or view all of her lovely products on her website https://www.paprly.com.au/

“Lace Mimosa – Fabric Design”

If you want to collaborate with us on The Designer Project and become part of this creative club, please apply! Send us an email with your portfolio and why you would like to be part of this initiative, and we will be in touch!

‘Garden of Memories’ Textile Collection by Amanda Laing

It’s that time again where we introduce our newest feature artist in The Designer Project and we are so excited to announce that the wonderful Amanda Laing will be our designer of the month! Amanda loves to express things visually through colour, form and pattern. Her approach to her designs is organic, being inspired by the world around her. She hand-draws all of her designs, using a wide range of media from pen, watercolour, gouche and paint.

Amanda’s “Garden of Memories” collection was very much a collection inspired by her childhood memories of the garden, which was her favourite place to be. She would spend hours playing outside, in her own world, observing, sampling and imagining from the natural world around her; often creating weird posies out of just about anything that caught her eye. We are so thrilled that she has made a selection of her garden inspired designs available in our Fabric Shop!

Each of Amanda’s designs can be printed onto any of our fabric base cloths which means you can order custom designer fabric that’s tailored to you! Keep reading to find out more about Amanda Laing’s beautiful floral designs!

“Daisy Drop” is a simple but bold design using a combination of a large and small floral daisy motifs. It features smokey blues with a warm golden daisy pop in watercolour and gouache.

We would love to see “Daisy Drop” used for a summer dress or some loose flowy pants!

“Elodie” is a pretty little floral design with a warm colour palette of butterscotch and blush pink. It also has a few painted gold spots for extra sparkle hand painted in watercolour and gouache.

We think “Eloide” is such a delightful print for a lovely little dress to a pair of super cute pyjamas.

“Lace Mimosa” features a warm and spicy colour and is full of finely detailed, hand drawn floral and butterfly motifs. We think this would be perfect for a super cute summer dress!

“Lace Mimosa” would be great to use for some adorable bedding or other statement homewares.

“Petal Pink” is a sweet hand painted watercolour and gouache floral print in the prettiest of pinks with a pale pink background.

We think “Petal Pink” would be the perfect print for fashion garments like a long flowing skirt or kaftan.

“Rosie” pairs flowing hand painted watercolour florals against a deep, navy-blue background. We’re loving the contrast of the pinks in this design against the dark blues.

We would love to see “Rosie” used for statement cushion covers and tote bags!

“Rose Garden” is a delightful floral design with flower motifs in pink and gold tones. Each illustration hand painted with watercolour and gouache.

We think “Rose Garden” would be the perfect print for some beautiful napkins or a tablecloth, even perhaps some fashion accessories like ties and scarves.

All of our project ideas above are suggestions only as the sky’s truly the limit with Amanda’s beautiful collection! Each of Amanda’s designs can be found in our Fabric Shop, so head on over to be inspired for your next DIY project!

Textile Collection Prairie

Spring is finally in bloom! As we have officially headed into the warmer seasons, we’re celebrating with our brand new Prairie Collection. Packed full of beautiful floral designs, it’s sure to inspire some DIY projects for Spring!

We’ve drawn our inspiration from the beauty of nature’s botanics for this collection, showcasing a range of dainty floral designs. The process began by hand-drawing and painting individual floral elements, which were then scanned and arranged into a variety of designs using Photoshop. A small scale was chosen for each of the designs to create a range of florals that were delicate and pretty. To ensure the collection was versatile we wanted to use a diverse colour palette. Cool and warm hues are used through the range which has a distinctly retro feel.

Our first design of the collection is Sweet Pea. It features soft, floral elements with an adornment of pea pods scattered throughout the design. The cool-toned colour palette gives this print a whimsical touch.

Next up we have Ginger Snap! This delightfully warm floral print is bursting with a bold, earthy glow. The detailed watercolour design and homely colour palette gives this print an inviting vintage feel.

Finally we have Posy! Our gorgeous Posy print features a mix of classic florals and soft watercolours, to create a design that is charmingly familiar.

We think the designs can be used for a variety of products and garments such as blouses, skirts, swimwear and bedding. The bright yet soft colours of the designs, compliment the season perfectly and will keep you inspired with whatever you choose to create with them. We’ve included some reference imagery to showcase the many ways you could use these designs this Spring!

Image via Pinterest

Snippets: Chats With Creatives, Textile Design Studio ‘Skye St Studio’ – Series 3, Snippet 5

Snippets. Chats with Creatives.

Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes print designers tick.

This series we are focusing on textile designers as our creatives to get into the nitty gritty of the thing we love the most, textiles and surface design! We have asked a different set of questions relative to this and as always we hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories.

Today we are chatting to Crystal Kruger from Sydney based Textile studio ‘Skye St Studio‘ who offer a range of services such as textile design, colour matching, pattern grading and mood board creation. They have a range of fun, bright and often hand painted prints that you can license or buy exclusively for all sorts of projects and needs as well as offering custom illustrations and design work.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your brand/label name what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

My name is Crystal Kruger and I am the designer behind Skye St. Studio. I am a textile and surface pattern designer and also a design educator. My career began straight out of school, studying fashion and textile design and technology education at the Whitehouse Institute of Design in Sydney. I have spent the last decade both teaching textiles and design subjects to students, as well as starting my own business as a textile designer. For me it has always been textiles or fashion in some form or another that fill my heart and fuel my inspiration. It took me a bit longer to realise the textile design was the right fit.

Where do you call home and what is your favourite thing about where you live?

I live in Sydney, Australia which is such an exciting, vibrant and inspiring place to be. Everything is fast paced but there is a wonderful balance between the urban and natural landscapes. I love being able to explore the ocean, the rivers and the mountains which surround Sydney but then also experience the wonderful, eclectic mix of cultures (and foods!) that inhabit this place. Culture, travel and nature are some of my biggest inspirations.

What 3 words best describe your creative style.

Colourful, painterly and fun! Trend-driven designs with soul.

Tell us a bit about what kind of studio, space or practice you run? Do you sell online or license your prints, do you do commissions or lots of freelance and what do you like doing the most?

Skye St. Studio is a very flexible design studio. Because it is so small I can be agile and accommodating to the needs of different clients. I sell the copyright to textile and surface pattern designs outright, as well as licensing prints through the catalogue on my website. At Skye St. Studio, I often work with local makers and other small businesses, but also larger companies and I love the variety that comes from working with different creative businesses. I do commission based pattern design and have worked with clients to design a range of other products including logos, tote bags layouts, soft toys and bespoke wall art for giftware. Skye St. Studio offers freelance design services as well and I would love to build that side of my business further. I also have an exclusive collection of designs available through Pattern Observer Studio. These are shown at trade shows such as Premiere Vision and Surtex but are also available for viewing at any time through Pattern Observer.

Do you have a favourite medium and/or method to work with, if so what is it and why?

My favourite way to design Skye St. Studio prints is to paint. I love to put some music on, something like The National and let the creativity flow. Sometimes I will just paint freehand, other times I will sketch first. I love to use gouache paints mostly, but also ink and watercolours. Not all Skye St. Studio prints are painted, but all are hand-illustrated before they are digitised. Colour is quite intuitive for me and so I tend to pick my palette right at the start of a project. I usually work with inspiration images in front of me, such as a Pinterest board I have created, a mood board I put together, or reference images from a client brief. I love the subtle variations of colour and texture that paint allows me to capture in my prints. I really feel this adds life and soul to my prints.

Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?

Well, I love all of the creative process! But I must say, there is nothing like getting your hands on a new design brief or a new idea. I love that inspiration and idea development phase, putting together a mood board and sourcing amazing imagery. In that moment I love the sense of purpose, drive and that excited feeling in my stomach. I love the potential of that stage and the intuitiveness of being inspired. I feel that this is a real strength of mine as a designer, I am very good at synthesising the mood of a brief and bringing ideas together.

What would you say is the biggest challenge when running your own business, what is your favourite and least favourite part?

The biggest challenge is the potential for isolation. As a designer we can get some absorbed in our thoughts and be in our heads too much. But also as a small business, it is easy to forget that other designers just like us are struggling with the same business challenges. It is really important to try and build a network of people that you can chat with and share your journey with. Often you are working from home or in a studio on your own and it can be a bit lonely at times. I love having someone else around to just ask, ‘what do you think of this?’ Otherwise it is so easy to overthink things! Finding the right clients can sometimes be a challenge as well, being a small business.

The best part is the creative freedom and the satisfaction I get from fulfilling my creative goals. When you have a win, it is amazing! I love it when a client gives me great feedback and I see them getting excited like I am about a print I am working on. That validation is amazing as a designer. It is wonderful working for myself, because I can choose what and who I want to work with as well. After the restrictions of working in schools for many years, I love the flexibility of being able to work from my studio or a cafe, to set my own schedule and to dress like me!

What would your dream creative project or collaboration look like? Tell us about why you would love to collaborate with them and what you find inspiring about their work.

My dream project would be to have my own print-driven, body positive clothing range. My background is in fashion and I have always approached clothing as a form of expression. Prints say so much about the wearer, which I love! Yes, trends come and go, but if you can find pieces for your wardrobe that really sing and show the world who you are, then that is a wonderful thing. I feel it is especially hard to find fashion like this for women size 14 and up. Your options become so limited and I think everyone deserves to be able to buy clothes they love, no matter your size.

What projects or collaborations from last year stuck out, good or bad and what is coming up over this year that you would like to plug!

I have a brand new collab which is launching right now and I am super excited about it. I recently worked with fashion designer Kathryn Shaw of Rattamatatt on her new spring collection called Jungle Fever, which is available for preorders on Etsy from 5th August. She has featured Skye St. Studio hand painted patterns from my Jungle Snakes print collection on her garments and it all looks so amazing! Kathryn has been a dream to work with and I am so proud of what we have created – we hope you all love it too!

All of Rattamatatt’s designs are classic and vintage cuts with a focus on fit and they all feature gorgeous, fun, modern prints with personality. Kathryn is all about slow fashion and ethical clothing production, making everything herself. I love this design philosophy and she has made my prints look absolutely fantastic on her garments! With Rattamatatt’s silhouettes and Skye St. Studio prints, the Jungle Fever collection is fun, bright and whimsical – check it out online! Stay tuned to our social media accounts also, as there may just be a fun little giveaway in the works, where you can score yourself some original Ratamatatt x Skye St. Studio goodness! Jungle Fever Collection available for preorder on 5th August 2019 at Rattamatatt’s Etsy store.

Where would you like to see your work featured?

One day I would love to see my work adorning some amazing dress in Vogue or for sale in Gorman! I am obsessed with their artist collabs haha.

You can find what Crystal is upto here: Website, Instagram, Facebook.

Snippets: Chats With Creatives, Illustrator & Pattern Designer Amber Davenport – Series 3, Snippet 3

Snippets. Chats with Creatives.

Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes print designers tick.

Today we are chatting to Amber Davenport, a British illustrator and surface pattern designer with a flair for hand painting bright and colourful artworks inspired by travel, botanicals and her surroundings.

She aims to make people happy with her artwork and accessories and we have to agree that she does! Her style is unique and she captures scenes in such a wonderful way with brushstrokes, patterns and colours used and details captured.

She has worked with Urban Outfitters, Birchbox, Target and OhhDeer and been featured in some great publications including Mollie Makes, Brownpaperbag and Artistic Moods. Her work is aesthetically pleasing and works in a variety of spaces and we had fun asking her the snippets questions:

Tell us a bit about yourself, your brand/label name what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

I’m Amber, I’m an Illustrator and Surface Pattern Designer from England. I sell my Illustrations as prints via my website and through companies such as Urban Outfitters, Target and Paperchase. I also create surface patterns for a range of different products including Cushions, Tote Bags and Wall Hangings. My business started in my bedroom in 2016 whilst I was studying Textiles at University in Manchester. Fast forward 3 years and my hobby and passion project has turned into a full time dream as a shop owner and Freelance Illustrator! Since graduating University last year I work from my studio at home where I’m kept company by my three cats and endless potted plants.

Where do you call home and what is your favourite thing about where you live?

I live in a Warrington in the North West of England, it’s great because it sits between two great cities; Manchester and Liverpool.

What 3 words best describe your creative style.

Botanical, Naïve and Colourful.

Tell us about your creative space, what are your tips for keeping a creative studio space organised? What would your dream space look like?

My studio is currently packed into the spare room of my home. It has very good natural light and is filled with plants as continuous inspiration. It’s great because I always have my cats to keep me company although sometimes I do get a bit of cabin fever, its so important to leave the house at least once a day! I’d love a bigger studio as I’m currently surrounded by boxes of stock with limited space to spread out. My dream studio would be a large white room, a blank canvas, filled with lots of desk space. Id love a designated area for packing stock and another area where I could paint and be messy!

What does a typical creative day look like for you? Do you follow a routine or are you project led?

Typically, in the morning I focus on replying to emails, updating my website, sorting content for social media and heading to the post office with lots of prints! These areas are the parts of my business I enjoy the least so I try to get these things done first so I can enjoy the rest of my day. After lunch I sit down at my desk and paint, whether it be for personal projects or client led projects. I love this part of my job and I get totally lost in it, sometimes I don’t leave my desk until the early hours of the morning.

Tell us about how you get your creative juices flowing, what is your process? Do you have a source of inspiration you want to share with us?

I love to travel, I recently got home from a four-month trip to Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hong Kong and Thailand. So at the moment I’m definitely ready to burst with ideas! Obviously I cant afford to travel all the time, so when I’m not travelling I like to visit Botanical Gardens and watch lots of David Attenborough documentary’s, on repeat!

Do you have a favourite medium and/or method to work with, if so what is it and why?

Acrylic and Gouache paints. I also like to collage with painted bits of paper, screenprint and sometimes like to papercut too! I’m a very hands on designer, I’ve never really been interested in digital design as the process isn’t as fun for me.

What would you say is the biggest challenge when running your own business, what is your favourite and least favourite part?

Time management! Its difficult juggling marketing, accounts, post office trips and replying to emails when all you really want to do is create. These things don’t come naturally to me so I have a habit of pushing them aside. My favourite part is completing personal projects. I consider myself so lucky that I get to create the art that I want the majority of the time. Some days I get to paint whatever I feel like in that moment, I find that sometimes these pieces become my best sellers and that’s just the best feeling ever. My least favourite part is the uncertainty of running your own business, my monthly income varies and this is quite daunting. I suppose organization and self motivation is key to feeling like you’re keeping on top of everything.

Where would you like to see your work featured?

Id love my surface pattern to be featured in Anthropology, it would just be a dream. Aside from that I would love to grow my brand enough so that I could start selling wholesale to high street stores. I’m currently working on expanding my product range to include more of my Surface Pattern Designs so if I could pull that off id be so happy.

You can read more about what Amber is upto Website, Instagram, Facebook.

Textile Collection Wildflower

It’s that time again – our design team has been busy working to deliver new range of textile designs for our Fabric Shop that delight and inspire. Having focused solely on digital methods to create designs for our previous launch we’ve returned to hand-drawn and hand-painted motifs, texture and line for our latest range. Introducing our Wildflower Collection.

Once again we found ourselves being inspired by nature. It’s hard not to be when it still feels like Summer in Sydney. Our research began by collecting imagery of picture perfect gardens and the creatures that lie within them. These were then used to start drawing and painting interesting forms and surfaces.

From the variety of motifs drawn, a selection of watercolour elements were chosen to develop further for the range, with detail rich designs being an area of focus. We wanted to create a range of prints where the designs could work on their own as well as complement each other when used together. By choosing the unifying feature of watercolour motifs across the range we knew we could be experimental with colour and still create a balanced and harmonious collection.

The Wildflower Collection plays with primary colours throughout the designs, with warm and cool variations of reds, yellows and blues being seen throughout. This balancing of undertones and vibrant colours results in a fun range of designs perfect for those who love to make a statement by mixing and matching bold prints together. We’ve included some reference imagery below that show not only designs comparable to those in this collection, but also those that celebrate the art of clashing prints.

image via Pinterest

The Wildflower Collection is full of dramatic colours, textural hand-drawn elements and motifs that feel both ‘naughty and nice’. Whilst ‘Viper Sun’ and ‘Tea Party’ are best suited for fashion rather than homewares, ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Zephyr’ can definitely work well for both. We’d love to know what sort of applications you think these designs would be perfect for – so get in touch! Designs are available in our Fabric Shop now.

Textile Collection Luxe

Recently when we’ve launched a new range of prints we’ve taken the time to put together a blog post that details the creative process behind the collection. We thought it would be a fabulous opportunity to revisit some of the past textile collections in our Fabric Shop and share the inspiration, techniques and methods that went into the creation of these designs. For this textile retrospective we’re focusing on one of our most popular ranges – The Luxe Collection. The range features 6 key designs, with some available in multiple colourways, resulting in a rich 10 piece collection.

Palazzo Colonna Rome – nikyrovis.com.au

Dulux Styling – we-are-scout.com

Villandry Wallpaper Styling – stylelibrary.com

The Luxe Collection wanted to celebrate the essential role that textiles and prints play in designing really sumptuous interiors. The layering of different colours and textures together elevates a space and gives it that luxurious feel. Our design team wanted to apply this same logic to a textile collection by playing around with different colours, techniques and imagery.

The first design element we worked on was colour. We wanted to select a colour palette that created a sense of opulence all on its own. The secondary colours of green and purple were selected as focal points, with distinct choices for each being used, including hot pink, sage green, indigo and spearmint. The colour palette has cool undertones throughout and is reminiscent of gem stones.

The creative process then varied for each of the designs. For the ‘Bold Rose’ prints, photographs taken at The Royal Botanic Garden were digitally manipulated to create moody large scale prints. The ‘Watercolour Pink’ and ‘Circular Peony’ were created from hand drawn watercolour illustrations which gives the designs a free-flowing aesthetic. ‘Mramor Ice’ was created using marbling techniques, which also provides an organic feel, whilst ‘Elephant Ear’ and the ‘Cutout’ prints were designed entirely digitally as a point of difference within the range.

This variation between designs creates a really interesting narrative throughout the collection where the prints can either work alone or harmonise beautifully together. The Luxe Collection is a series of statement prints certain to give any space a touch of flair.

We’d love to know what sort of project you would like to use these designs for, or perhaps the projects you’ve already used them for – so please get in touch! Designs are available in our Fabric Shop now.

Nailed It: Q & A Style Interview With Stavroula Adameitis From Frida Las Vegas

Nailed It. Creative business success story

Here at Digital Fabrics we love finding a new and interesting success story on a brand or business that is inspiring to the creative community. We thought it would be useful and informative to find out how these creative businesses nailed it, lessons learned on the way and tips they might have. We have asked them to share important “How to’s” and growth hacking tips for start-ups and emerging designers. Read it, get motivated and nail it yourself!

We are back for 2019 and we have a fabulous designer to get your creative juices flowing and your mind ticking! To get the year going we are chatting to Stavroula Adameitis, the artist and designer behind the fabulous label ‘Frida Las Vegas‘ an Australian brand known for its bright colours, pop art themes and humorous work with a big kitsch kick and homage to the 80’s. We had the pleasure of asking her a few questions about how she is nailing it and what she has learnt along her journey so far.

Firstly, please tell us about how Frida las Vegas was born and how you came up with the very fun name?

The name ‘Frida Las Vegas’ was given to me by a dear friend when I unceremoniously signed up for an OKCupid.com profile some time in 2012 and didn’t want to use my real name on screen. I stayed on the platform for a grand total of 10 minutes before getting creeped out and leaving the online dating world forevermore but I noted the name ‘Frida Las Vegas’ had a catchy ring to it. I felt the combination of artistic feminine expression a la Frida Kahlo with a side order of tack-a-rama Las Vegas glamour really summed up who I was and what I wanted to express, so it was perfect to create work under this name a year later!

Your artwork is uber unique! What messages are you trying to share and what does your brand represent?

Thank you! My work is super nostalgic and reflects my personal obsessions with icons of popular culture, architecture, fashion and memory – many of which are distinctly Australian, which I feel is missing from the pantheon of Pop Art. Glamour and humour are central to the FRIDA LAS VEGAS ideology as these terms usually contradict themselves and I don’t think they necessarily should.

Visually, I’m interested in creating a universe that exists in its own timewarp, like a mash-up between art deco linework, 1980s Memphis Milano graphics and 1950s atomica. Ultimately my brand represents the self-actualising power of positivity, colour, confidence and humour.

Your colour palette is bold and bright, do you ever see this changing or is it integral to your work?

My colour palette is somewhere between a Barbie Campervan and a bag of mixed lollies and I can’t see this changing too much across mediums. I connect with bright colours on a deep level as they give me energy. If I ever use black as a major colour, I’m pretty sure will only be used as a background for multicoloured neon lights!

Do you work on Frida las Vegas full time? If so how did you make the transition and what experience have you found most valuable on the way? What advice can you give to fellow creatives thinking about making the leap?

Presently, I work freelance and split my time between clients, agencies and my own work under the FRIDA LAS VEGAS label. It’s all a juggle but I love constantly learning and evolving. There’s no roadmap through a career and I’m excited to see where the path twists and turns as new technologies and opportunities present themselves in the future. It’s important to stay open and flexible, regardless of your medium or industry.

Do you think you have a specific demographic, if so who are they and what do you think they love most about your work?

Anyone who appreciates vintage-inspired styling, a keen sense of humour and a love of colour is probably going to connect with my work. I’ve been told by customers that wearing FRIDA LAS VEGAS makes them feel fabulous and confident, which is the ultimate double-whammy compliment in my books and also the reason I do what I do!

Sydney is a BIG source of inspiration for you (obviously, because she’s fabulous dahhh-ling). Can we expect to see any work inspired by any of our other glorious Aussie cities?

I adore Sydney and feel incredibly inspired to call Sydney home, but am equally pumped to explore the mythologies, signs, symbols, faces and places of other Australian locales – especially the Gold Coast (so gloriously tropical and tacky!) and Adelaide always holds a giant slice of my heart, as that’s where I grew up and spent my first 25 years on the planet.

Who are your biggest inspirations and who tops your dream collaboration list?

I’d love to collaborate with Black & Gold or Home Brand, but this is definitely a pipe dream as they are both very elusive and exclusive! Fashion-wise, I love the work of Elio Fiorucci, Jeremy Scott, Thierry Mugler, Gianni Versace and 80s Barbie, amongst others. Cinema is also a massive passion, especially costume and set design – which is truly creative across the spectrum and allows filmmakers and their teams to construct entire ‘worlds’, something I find really appealing.

Ethical manufacturing is clearly very important to you (yass!). As another local business supporting the ethical fashion movement we’d love to hear what your motivations with this cause are.

Ethical manufacturing makes perfect sense. From a production perspective, it’s more efficient to foster relationships with local suppliers whom you can jump on the phone and workshop ideas with in the same timezone rather than dealing with overseas companies by email. My artwork celebrates Australia in all its forms, so it’s only fair my clothing truly reflects that celebration in how it is produced and constructed. I’m a big believer in practicing what you preach!

You recently entered the world of fashion with a product list growing fast! What led to you designing and creating these pieces and what might be next?

I’m always motivated to design what I personally want to wear and can’t find on the market. I’m not interested in trying to reach a mass audience, which gives me freedom to follow my instincts and design without boundaries. Presently I’m on the hunt for the perfect swimsuit that is fun AND flattering, with no luck from what’s on the market – so I’m working on making that happen!

What projects are on the horizon for Frida Las Vegas for 2019? Can you share any juicy plans or new product launches?

I’m working on an exhibition of neon and acrylic art that I’m MEGA pumped about, which is shaping up to be an extravaganza of extreme 80s glamour!

What is your advice for creatives at the beginning of their journey? Perhaps they are not sure on the product to create or the path to go down. If you could go back and give yourself advice, what would it be?

The best way to do is by doing. Skill up. Tool Up. Bar a few established professions, the concept of a career with a capital C is 100 per cent in flux right now – so stay ahead of the game with real, practical, hands-on skills that render you valuable and flexible for a changing world.

Find your own unique style. Don’t seek to emulate the work of one or two of your favourite artists. Instead, find inspiration from the random things that TRULY speak to you. Aim to ‘channel’ your influences rather than ‘copy’. Creating a style is all about how you mix up the mediums, styles, symbols and feelings of the things you love to create a product that is more cohesive than the sum of all its parts. Do this with your own personal flourishes.

Social media now consumes so much of our time and mental space, how do you manage this area and do you have any tips on how to stay relevant and fresh?

Social platforms are purposefully addictive by the nature of their interface design. With minimal ‘exit points’, it’s important to maintain boundaries with yourself and not get lost ‘in the scroll’. I strive to share my work in a tone that is authentic, relatable and not-too-serious. If a photo or video takes more than a minute to write a caption, I don’t post it because it means I’m probably thinking about it too much. Ultimately it’s important to not take social too seriously or let it define you – we are all human, not numbers!

As a business owner these days you have to have the ability to wear lots of hats, what is your favourite and least favourite hat to wear and why?

Posting orders at the post office isn’t my favourite part of the process but I’m trying to find beauty in the banal and see it as a chance to leave the computer and stop ‘n’ smell the (Cadbury) Roses!

Thanks Stav, what a fun and inspiring read!

You can follow along with what Stavroula from Freda Las Vegas is upto Website, Instagram,

Textile Collection Flora Folk

We had so much fun creating our last collection we thought we’d release another range of beautiful fabric prints dedicated to florals. This time round we completely changed our creative process to deliver fabric prints that felt entirely different to the soft, inky designs of the Palamporia Collection. Introducing our new Folk Flora range, which is available now in our Fabric Shop.

To make sure we were creating floral motifs that felt new we put the watercolours away! This time we wanted to focus on the textures and line work that could be achieved by working digitally only. This does unfortunately mean that we don’t have any gorgeous process illustrations to share, however we think the end results are stunning enough!

We began by collecting images of flowers to draw from, as well as endless scans and photographs we’d gathered of interesting textures. We drew our floral motifs digitally, giving them crisp sharp lines and overtly simplified shapes reminiscent of retro floral forms.

We then began to play with our gallery of photographs and scans. These images were manipulated, distorted and layered to come up with interesting designs to use to fill our floral motifs. Some designs, such as ‘Kaleidoscope Garden’, layer several of these digital textures to create a really rich patchwork, whilst others like ‘Stormy Blossom’ choose to showcase just one gorgeous texture. The strictly digital process of drawing, cutting and collaging resulted in designs that had a vintage flair, so accordingly we chose a warm colour palette that reflected this outcome.

With so many of our prints starting with hand-drawn elements it was refreshing to try a whole new process with a different set of restrictions and possibilities. The Folk Flora Collection creates retro feeling designs for the digital age, and can work for both fashion and interiors applications.

We’d love to know what sort of project you think this range would be perfect for – so get in touch! Designs are available in our Fabric Shop now.

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