On Sunday night in Sydney, on the eve of Australian fashion week, First Nations Fashion and Design (FNFD) staged their first runway show in four years. Titled “Reclamation”, the collective featured the work of six Indigenous brands and designers with an all-Indigenous cast of models, and closed with performances from rapper Barkaa and poet Luke Currie-Richardson. Announcing their plan to become an annual runway platform for Indigenous designers – outside of the industry’s formal structures – the FNFD founder, Grace Lillian Lee said: “Reclamation was never designed to fit comfortably within the existing fashion system. It was designed to challenge it, expand it, and ensure that our voices are not invited in temporarily, but embedded permanently within the future of Australian fashion”
