It was 1985, and after years out in the red dust of the West Australian goldfields prospecting for gold, we found ourselves back in Perth. We were living in a little rental house in West Leederville. Life felt wide open again. We had no idea what our next adventure would be, but something was definitely brewing.
One day, I spotted an ad in the local paper. A fashion agent was looking for someone to hand-paint T-shirts. I thought, why not? I applied, got the job, and soon found myself painting flowers. Roses, poppies, sunflowers. I even did a cheeky series of clowns and tropical birds, all decorated with sequins. They sold like hotcakes.
It wasn’t long before we thought, why don’t we just do this ourselves?
I nervously walked into a few local boutiques with a handful of samples. The first was Paradiso in the Hay Street Mall, then Lizzies in Applecross. To my surprise and huge relief, they both said yes.
"Yes, we’d love some. And before Christmas, please!"
It was already late November and Lizzies ordered seventy. Seventy!
Suddenly, our living room turned into a production line. I painted all day, Tim sealed the fabric paint with a hot press, and my sister sat at the table sewing on sequins by hand. It was wild and exhausting, and so much fun. That’s how our fashion label Crissy was born.
Back then, everything moved fast. We were young, full of energy, and apparently didn’t need much sleep. Catherine started school, Matthew was in day care, and we used the money from our gold finds to buy a beautiful old house in Northbridge. Yes, a real gold nugget story. We built a small studio in the back garden, and that became our creative hub.
Photo of Tim holding some of the house deposit.
By 1987, Perth was buzzing. The America’s Cup had landed and there was a surge of excitement in the air. I was hand-painting T-shirts and sweatshirts with koalas, possums and West Australian wildflowers for the Purely Australian stores. To keep up with demand, we brought on more painters and a team of girls joined us to add sequins and appliqué.
Soon we moved beyond hand-painting and began screen printing our designs. It was a whole new world to learn. We taught ourselves how to do the separations by hand on a light table, the proper old-school way. Eventually, we started designing and manufacturing our own garments too. Flowing cheesecloth skirts, capri pants, shorts and overshirts filled the racks.
We hit the road, travelling to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns, and partnered with fashion agents to help sell our ranges. We were producing three collections a year. Summer, second summer and winter. Orders poured in from across Australia, including from department stores like Aherns and David Jones. North Queensland and the island resorts became our biggest fans.
Our fashion label and growing orders - side by side with top brands in ‘87.
And amidst it all, I still held tight to my art practice. I designed every garment and every print placement. In the quiet hours, late at night or on the weekends, I’d sketch at the kitchen table. My muses were all around me. Tim, our beautiful children and our beloved cats.
My evening art practice drawings.
Stay tuned because the story doesn’t end there. This adventure still had a few unexpected turns waiting around the corner.