SYDNEY — Linda Jackson and Grace Lillian Lee are among the winners of the 2021 Australian Fashion Laureate Awards, which were announced at an event in Sydney on Tuesday.
Jackson received the top honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1973, together with the 2013 Laureate Jenny Kee, Jackson cofounded the influential Flamingo Park boutique in Sydney’s Strand Arcade, selling colorful knitwear and clothing inspired by Australian native flora and fauna, which garnered international attention. In 1982, Jackson went to focus on her own Bush Couture design studio and later relocated to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory to work with remote Indigenous communities and then other Indigenous artists in Mossman Gorge in Queensland.
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Indigenous designer and entrepreneur Grace Lillian Lee received the inaugural Carla Zampatti Award for Excellence in Leadership, a new award that was introduced this year in memory of Carla Zampatti, who died in April after a fall at the Sydney Opera.
The founder of First Nations Fashion and Design, a national voice for Indigenous creatives, Lee works with remote Indigenous communities to produce runway shows at events such as the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair, the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week in June this year, the event’s first Indigenous showcase.
In recognition of Australia’s burgeoning Indigenous fashion sector, Laureate organizer IMG also introduced an Indigenous Designer of the Year category this year. The inaugural award was won by Julie Shaw of the Maara Collective label, who also showed at AAFW this year in a separate show presented by the Indigenous Fashion Projects initiative.
Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales of Romance Was Born won Designer of the Year; Richard Jarman, who designs the men’s resort wear label Commas, won Emerging Designer of the Year, and Elizabeth Abegg and Isabella Pennefather of Spell won the People’s Choice Award.
Deborah Sams and Mary Lou Ryan from Bassike won the Sustainable Innovation of the Year award. In July, the company’s business and retail operations gained certification under the Australian federal government’s Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard for Organisations.
“The Australian Fashion Laureate provides an important platform to celebrate the success of Australia’s designers and fashion talent, while demonstrating that our industry’s creativity and connectivity can continue to flourish despite extraordinary challenges” said Natalie Xenita, vice president-managing director of IMG’s fashion events and properties Asia Pacific. “In striving for change and innovation, today’s honorees have played a significant role in future-proofing our industry and reinforcing the cultural impact of fashion both within and beyond Australia.”