Q&A with Magpie Goose owner/director Amanda Hayman
Tell us a bit about the upcoming collection.
The upcoming Magpie Goose collection is in collaboration with the Ewyenper Atwatye (Hidden Valley) artists who are based in Mparntwe / Alice Springs. They are a part of Town Camp Designs, with Tangentyere Artists and Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, and the creators of the very popular “Bush car take you everywhere” T-shirt.
We’ve had a great relationship with Town Camp Designs through our other businesses - Blaklash, Open House and Aboriginal Art Co, as we’ve stocked their products for some time.
Ewyenper Atwatye artists have an existing practice of creating and screen printing artworks for tea towels and t-shirts. The artists have a recognisable aesthetic and their experience in creating art for textiles made it a great match!
Tangentyere Artists are renowned for their canvas paintings and support some well-known established artists and the other town camp, Yarrenyty Arltere Artists, create unique hand-stitched soft sculptures and are translating them into exciting fashion garments for the runway! So working with Ewyenper Atwatye meant we could realise their incredible artworks into fashion pieces too.
The Magpie Goose x Ewyenper Atwatye collection is going to be very different from our previous collection as it comes from inland desert Country, as opposed to saltwater Country of the previous Ardyaloon collection. Because of this, we’ll see a dramatic change in both story and culture. Learning about the diverse First Nations stories is one of the things we love most here at Magpie Goose.
Troy and Amanda, Magpie Goose owners. Photo: Rhett Hammerton
Tell us about some of the artists Magpie Goose is collaborating with and their practices.
Ewyenper Atwatye artists all have a diverse background of creating art. The art centre provides a space for coming together and being creative, and all the artists are at different stages of their art journey. For example, one of the artists, Cassandra Neil, only started going to the art centre when she had kids and had settled down a bit. But some of the older crew have been going for a much longer period.
Some artists have seen their work in the fashion world already. Carol Young had her ‘Clouds’ print on the runway for From Country to Couture in 2019. And Tim McNamara’s ‘Initi’ seed pods print was seen on Magnolia Maymuru in Vogue.
For Magpie Goose lovers, what can we expect from this collection?
We’ve been inspired by the colours of Country from the red centre, and the first few print drops have some lovely earthy tones. But we know a lot of our customers like bright and bold colours, so we definitely have some vibrant colours coming out later in the collection.
In terms of cuts, you asked and we listened! The new cut that will come out straight away is the Everyday Top. We’ve heard from many of you that the Box Top feels a bit short so we’ve tweaked the pattern to make the Everyday Top – which is the boxy cut that everyone loves with a slightly longer body to make it more versatile.
I am excited about some new Kids items. Our little boy Charlie grew out of his size 4 overalls, so we will soon have Kids clothing going up to size 8. They’re so cute, I can't wait to share!
We also have full length jumpers in the pipeline for next winter so we can offer jumpers for all genders. We have a bunch of other new cuts coming out too that we can’t wait to share with you.
Is there anything extra special about this collection?
Actually, this is the first time we’ve created a collection from start to finish!
It’s really cool to be able to run art workshops, develop relationships and work with the artists. My background is in visual art and in a prior job, I traveled to remote areas of Queensland and helped communities illustrate and capture local stories through art and animation, so this has been a nice full-circle moment for me.
We went out to Desert Mob in Mparntwe / Alice Springs recently and had a pre-launch sale at Tangentye Artists. Everyone was really excited about seeing the new designs. And we’re just as excited about showing the rest of you!
Magpie Goose operates differently to mainstream brands, we choose to release a new print design every 1 to 2 months so we have the opportunity to celebrate each artist, their artwork and story. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our newsletter and follow our socials to be the first to know about the new designs, the artists and their stories.
The first print from the Magpie Goose x Ewyenper Atwatye collection will drop on 18 October, 2023. (Put it in your calendars!)