I don't know about you but when I was little I was obsessed with gardens and fairies and all the colours that went along with the magic a childhood imagination brings. Not a lot has changed. Now that I am a 'fully grown adult' - and I use the term lightly - I am still in love with colour and beautiful things, so I was delighted when I came across a girl who has brought this magic into the realms of her adult livelihood.

Jaime Lee Major is a Perth artist and designer who creates explosive watercolour paintings and transforms these paintings into wearable garments. When painting Jaime explained she lets her "subconscious take over and whimsical characters are brought to life through rapidly applied colour, creating textural bleeds and bleached out grounds which are worked back into with ink to create form." Her artwork has been published in the Curvy 5 book, compiled with 100 of the best female artists from all over the world.

It is hard to believe that Major is still a student and studies Fashion and Textile Design at the WA School of Art, Design and Media. She is inspired by colour and texture and describes her style as avante garde, wearable art. Although Major has experienced some exposure in recent years - featuring in the Xpress Winter Fashion Magazine and opening the Fragile Fashion Parade held at Capitol last year, if justice is to be served, before long we will be seeing Major in the same light as other Australian designers Romance Was Born and Josh Goot - no artist collaboration necessary.

Jaime Lee will showcase her first collection at the WASADM Fashion and Textile Graduation Show on Friday 28th November at 12 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. Tickets on sale soon.

Current Stockists: Harry High Pants, William Street, Northbridge
                Karolina York Print Studios, Sydney

jaimeleemajor@gmail.com

It's got to be said Major is pretty darn Major! (sorry I had to ;-)

Carly Hunter is a designer from Perth who has had much success since winning the Perth Fashion Festival 'New Generation' award in 2007. The win led to Hunter showing her Autumn/Winter 2008 collection at the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March of this year. She has presented her 2008/09 Spring/Summer collection at StyleAid and the 2008 Perth Fashion Festival and now has stockists nation wide and in New Zealand.

Carly Hunter's current collection - Spring/Summer 08/09 is titled 'Temporary Shelters'.
The inspiration of the collection came as Hunter was preparing to travel around Europe with friends, an obsession grew on the idea of 'the modern nomad' and people who spend their entire lives moving from place to place.
"Each design is based on a 'Temporary Shelter' like a tent, a yurk, a tee pee, a cardboard box..and I looked at the simplicity of them all, their job is to provide shelter for a period of time and then be folded up and moved to another place."
These ideas were incorporated into the collection by sharp folds in the fabric, zips, drawstrings and the geometrical cut of each design with a lot of fringing in reference to 'tribal nomadic existence.'