Philanthropist
Role Model Mindset: I will share
Fashion fabrics, sequins
“I grew up in a country town. My dad was a typewriter mechanic with a workshop in our home. He was an artisan; he could fix anything and he always looked after his clients.
But he wasn’t very good at bookkeeping and occasionally asked me to help him. Step one was always sifting out the clients he thought might be struggling.
He’d say, “You don’t take more than you’re entitled”. It wasn’t his way to chase after money.”
Design
A sprinkling of abstract shapes that might be butterflies or leaves or pools of possibility were cut out of translucent fabric shot through with the highlight colours in the coat fabric and scattered behind the mannequin.
The Philanthropist’s story was striking. As a child, she dreamt of growing up and give money to the people who needed it. What a dream for a child! I had to base a coat design on her. This coat needed generosity, fullness and a sense of the wider space it sought to nourish. I slashed the straight lines of the base pattern to create the volume and swing in the back and sides.
Fabric
The liquid colours of the shiny internal layer are revealed with a “burn out” of the leaf-like shapes. The fabric holds its shape: beautiful, floating, yet firm in space. It is a pleasure to watch it move slightly in a breeze — the rainbow purple tones only revealed in some lights. It’s as though the coat comes alive when the viewer pays it some attention.
The challenge for this coat was to find a fabric that was modest and low-key like its storyteller, yet also able to convey the sparkle and flow of generosity on which her philanthropy was based. In a lucky day of fabric hunting, I found this fabric in the same fabric shop as the Liberty print for the Investor coat. It’s a silk and acrylic mix, with the beige base fabric slightly rough, almost felted, to touch.
