And the winner is…

A huge thank you to all those who recently bought raffle tickets and supported the Restoring Nepal fundraiser organised by the Restoring Nepal Fremantle community collective. The prize was a fantastic mama baba bundle that raised $600! 100% of the funds are going to the Gyuto Monks to distribute directly to families in local villages across Nepal. Congratulations to Megan Shaw who won first prize and to Allie Blunsden who gifted her second prize win of a new family photo shoot with me, to Vitalis, Ameigh and Mara.

Shot earlier in the week under a brooding sky, here are some of my favourite moments of this lovely new family. Thanks and love!

  

So far, the Restoring Nepal Fremantle community collective has generated over $30,000 for Oxfam to deliver Major Emergency Appeal Relief kits, providing families with tents, life-saving water kits, emergency hygiene kits and temporary toilets to avoid the spread of disease and provide dignity to people who have lost almost everything. Alongside this, there is an ongoing crowdfunding campaign for anyone that wants to contribute to restoring Nepal.

~ Crowd Funding ~ ongoing
http://www.gofundme.com/restoringnepal

Fairly Fashionable? – The Event

It’s been a busy two and a half weeks shooting the designers in their studios for the Fairly Fashionable? challenge. The event was a resounding success, with the sell-out parade coinciding with the second anniversary of the Bangladesh Rana Plaza disaster, now known universally as Fashion Revolution Day on April 24th. All garments were made using fabric donated by an ethical or fair trade business. Here is a small selection of frames from behind the scenes and on the runway…  

Due to the success of door sales, Fairly Fashionable? raised enough to fund the Khmer Creations children’s project in Cambodia. As a result, they have decided to extend the bidding on their silent auction and direct the proceeds from these bids towards the emergency response to the earthquake in Nepal, which happened the day after the event. Some of the fair trade fabric donated to the Fairly Fashionable? challenge was made in Kathmandu.

Items are still available. Bidding closes at midnight on Sunday 3rd of May.

from top to bottom:

Designer: Megan Sears | Fabric donated by Anjel Ms and Empire of Bees

Designer: Asha Fuin | Fabric donated by Fair Go Trading

Designer: Louise Wells | Fabric donated by Anjel Ms and Nurturing Threads

Designer: Esma Velagic | Fabric donated by Fair Go Trading

Designer: Nicola Potter | Fabric donated by Anjel Ms and Fair Go Trading

Designer: Ayesha Thapa | Fabric donated by Oxfam Shop

Designer: Harrison Swan | Fabric donated by Anjel Ms

Ayesha Thapa

Over the next two and a half weeks, I will be documenting designers involved in this year’s Fairly Fashionable? challenge. Participants across Australia have just over two weeks to design and create a garment celebrating the ethically sourced fabric they received at the launch on 1st April, which culminates in a Fair Trade fashion show on Fashion Revolution Day, April 24th.

Ayesha Thapa

‘I am aware of Fair Trade because I’ve visited the villages in Rajisthan, India where women from the community actively engage in printmaking and I’ve designed a few garments with women in Nepal who work with felt products, however I’ve never worked exclusively with ethically sourced fabric. Fairly Fashionable? presented me with an opportunity to draw from my history and heritage with a piece of fabric from Kolkata, India. It challenged me to reconnect with my homeland and explore the feelings of familiarity I felt upon seeing it. I used iconic Indian architecture to create a paper book template for my fabric so, like the pages of a book, my garment would offer glimpses of my past’.

Ayesha has been involved in the fashion industry since 2005. Originally from Nepal, she studied in India where she went on to design garments for the celebrities of Bollywood films and work on over fifty runway shows. Returning to Nepal, she found that she had become one of the most qualified people in the industry there so she made the move to study overseas to fulfill her dream of becoming an international designer. She is currently studying at Edith Cowan University. Visit her Facebook page for more.