More fashion week images

SALE day and other news

On Wednesday 25 August we held the first VIP sale - very pleased to have a stampede (Bowraville style) of people in the shop and even more pleased to bank some much needed income from our outlet range. Things are looking good !

We have a great group of students in our new Tuesday sewing classes are going great guns with 6 students now joining us each week.

Image above from MNC Innovation Festival tour on 21 May in Bowraville. Aunty Ruth explains the background of the shop & MiiMi Creations.

We also have some new visitors coming over from the Nambucca Youth Services Centre to join us from time to time. Nellie continues design class currently working on some adaptations of local plants.

Trouble on the venue front as our funding is about to conclude for our shop lease and we need to source an alternate location. At this point there is too much risk involved in taking a loan so we fly by the seat of our pants for a little while again. Adding to the anticipation is the conclusion of many of our positions at the end of September - fortunately we have great support from TAFE Outreach which will see us through the next few months.

for some (pictured left) it's just all too much...

Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival

We were there !

Aunty Ruth, Carla, Deb & Kerry went on the journey from Bowraville on Tuesday 24 August arriving in Sydney at 10.30am for a whirlwind trip around the city to townhall, Chinatown then on to our fabric supplier in Surry Hills.

Soaked up the atmosphere of the meeting area & catwalk, great for market research and getting used to the industry jargon. dahling !

Valla Market 7 August 2010

A day out at the market on Saturday 7 August 2010. (Bonnie, Deb & Kerry)

It is certainly what they say about that early bird - I arrived at the market at 7.15am, a little later than expected and found our stall position would be at the back of the micro stall marquee (shared with 4 other old and new friends). We made the most of this & used the back of the stall to put up our clothes rack and hoped that would give people some room to move as they got a better look at the garments. Funny how difficult it can be to lay out a display when you're not used to it.
Luckly Bonnie had a huge collection of coat hangers & these came in really handy for our display. I practiced my folding skills but they certainly still need some polishing! (it's the little things that are so easy to overlook!) Sales were very poor but we did cover our stall fee (phew !) and more importantly gained some really valuable input about the products.

We also met with a few new potential MiiMi Creations members and supporters which really made the whole day worthwhile.

Learning on the day: our position in the marquee (at the back) wasn't great at all - We really needed a better position where people can see what we're producing without having to come all the way into the 'den'.

* It is very difficult to get the point across about this being an Aboriginal owned organisation - despite all of the signage, logos and (as you can see in the pic with me) MiiMi banner, people want to see the producers - food for thought.

Possibly the fabric that we've made cushion covers & aprons from needs to be a little more robust - however, perhaps this defeats the purpose of the 'outlet' line ? not sure. Our pricing for this market was a little out - a lot of stalls have imported stock from asia making the value of our hand made and printed stock decrease - I believe this is an issue across markets everywhere. We need to come up with ways to help people understand the authenticity of the product - some ideas brewing here... All in all though a great day for learning and discussion

Ordering ordering

Kerry is busily ordering enough stock to keep us going over the next months... Priorities
* Producing the full summer 2011 range
* Producing enough stock for the upcoming ANTaR catalogue
* Stock for MiiMi Outlet, markets

Some big decisions to make with our production venue, staying where we are or moving to an alternate location... Getting ready for big stocktake and building artist database on Friday - lookout ladies !

Presenting the range

Deb and Aunty Ruth present the Summer 2011 range to MiiMi staff. Deb explains the garments chosen suit all sizes and a few pieces will be adapted for a very small Winter 2011 range.

Everyone is waiting on a delivery of fabric to get into sample making mode...

Off to the markets

MiiMi Creations Outlet range available from SATURDAY
Want to get your hands on some of the new MiiMi Creations outlet range ? MiiMi's outlet range will be available at the Valla Market THIS Saturday (7 August). The market is at Valla Beach Reserve (NSW) from 8.30am.

Some of the kids t-shirts pictured left...