You could say Julie White was destined to be an artist. She grew up amongst the Australian landscape surrounded by fabric, scrap paper and parents who made things, had a nonna who taught her to sew, and learnt from a young age that “if you want something, you can make it yourself”. “I’ve always loved the idea you can create something from nothing,” she says, “[and] build a sort of world around you from your imagination.”
Which is exactly what she’s done in the form of hand-drawn printed textiles and her eponymous brand. After studying fashion design at TAFE, followed later by completing a Masters of printed textile design at the Glasgow School of Art, Julie has been making silk scarves and specialty socks full time since 2015. Her accessories are fun; they’re inventive, cheeky, full of colour and clearly the product of a curious imagination. “My style will always be an exploration,” she says. “I start by searching for a feeling. Sometimes it’s been there for a long time and it’s a process of remembering. Other times there’s the inkling of a new feeling and you need to coax it out. That’s the most fun. That’s when I enjoy it the most.”
What does seem to stick throughout her designs, however, is reference to native flora, fauna and the Australian landscape. While nature has always been her main source of inspiration, it wasn’t until doing her Masters that Julie began looking specifically to Australian flora and fauna, spurred on by a homesickness from living in the UK, and made this central to her now signature style of bold, colourful, playful designs. In her latest collection, Gone Troppo, Julie continues to build on the “tradition of contemporary Australiana”, albeit leaning positively toward the tropics thanks to her recent move to the beach. After years looking to the bush, Julie suddenly found herself in a new environment and “affected by the change of scenery”. What used to be “remote and exotic”, fascinating but out reach, is now on her doorstep and, it seems, perfect new material. “I think [the previous distance to the tropical landscape] allowed me to approach the theme with a sense of fantasy,” she says, “it’s really been a chance for me to indulge my imagination.”
Creating designs based on nature doesn’t look to be changing any time soon either. As Julie says, “I feel like I could spend a lifetime exploring [contemporary Australiana] – continuing to define what it means to me. I’m excited by the potential of what it could be, and new ways of seeing it.”
Julie White
juliewhite.com.au
Photography by Emmaline Zanelli
Creative direction and styling by Sharmonie Cockayne
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