After enjoying the Bloomin’ Fabulous runway during Feast Festival in 2023, I took part in November 2024. I had attended some of SAMESH’s monthly drop in monthly Sustainable Style sessions and was asked to join this intergenerational creative queer project exploring identity and expression. Makers and models teamed up, including allies, and presented a sold-out fun runway event in the Botanic Garden Conservatory.

In the lead up we met monthly to workshop our creations and bounce around ideas. I was inspired by the Darwin sunset Frangipani rubra my partner Ray planted as that’s the town where we met. 

It was yet to bloom – in pink with orange – one of my favourite colour combinations. Apparently, the colour is intense on opening and mellows as the flowers age. It is now blooming as I write.

I wanted to upcycle something and staying with the tropical theme, chose for slight modification my 1960s vintage Tribute Malia maxi dress ‘crafted in British Hong Kong’ featuring pink hibiscus with orange stamens and green stems on white.

Talk of my favourite colours sparked a reference to the five stripe ‘sunset’ lesbian flag of oranges, whites and pinks loosely informing the colours of the dramatic opera gloves made by my maker Helen using a drag queen’s pattern. It was all complemented by a hibiscus headdress.

Creativity, community, fashion. Thanks for assistance from Helen Calabretto, Gemma Oswald, Janiece Pope and Nikki Sullivan. More photos and news on the SAMESH website.