Winning garments from the 2024 Natural Fibre Fashion Awards at the Henty Machinery Field Days. The committee is introducing two new categories for this year’s awards. Photo: Andy Rogers.
Capes made from old woollen blankets, a shawl made from a tablecloth and matching pants from a chenille bedspread were among some rather interesting entries in last year’s Henty Machinery Field Days’ fashion awards.
It got the Country Lifestyle ladies thinking that there might be something in this new fascination with everything old.
And so in 2025 designers are being encouraged to hunt down vintage fabrics or even repurpose that old wool blanket for a new category of the Henty Natural Fibre Fashion Awards in September.
The Best Repurposed/Recycled Fabric Garment only requires that entries be made of natural fibres and will carry a prize of $500, sponsored by Greater Hume Council.
Awards convenor Anne Maher, who has stepped into the large shoes left by long-standing co-ordinator Lyn Jacobsen, said the new category was an exciting addition to the program.
“We are always trying to attract more interest in the awards and this seems like a good way forward,” Mrs Maher said.
“Last year we had some interesting repurposed entries – it is great to see materials that have had another purpose now being used for something else.
“We felt this warranted its own category and it’s important to move with the times.”
Recycling, repurposing and upcycling is certainly a hot topic at the moment, Mrs Maher added.
“We are seeing that big push on recycling across our own shire councils,” she said.
The ever-innovative team that runs the popular Country Lifestyle Pavilion have added a second new category to this year’s fashion awards – the Popular Choice Award.
To be judged in a similar fashion to the Archibald Prize Packers Award, this category will be decided by the astute and hardworking volunteers behind the scenes, according to Mrs Maher.
“I think this will also be an interesting one as we are handling the garment from the word go – we unpack it, we get to feel it and look at it from a different perspective before we put it on a model,” she said.
Lyn Jacobsen (centre), pictured with Alison Scott and Irma Macreadie, is stepping down as Natural Fibre Fashion Awards convenor after 20 years in the role. Photo: Andy Rogers.
Mrs Maher laughingly admitted it took some “hard talking” to get her to take over the reins from stalwart Lyn Jacobsen, paying tribute to the awards founder’s contribution over the decades.
“It would not be possible to put on the awards without the small team working in the background – everything goes like clockwork with all knowing their job thanks to Lyn and her organisational skills,” she said.
“It has been really interesting to watch Country Lifestyle evolve, and it is a great credit to Lyn using her contacts and initiative to develop it to what it is today.”
Mrs Maher herself has longstanding links to the field days, starting many moons ago as an exhibitor with her talented seamstress grandmother.
“My grandmother was an exquisite needlewoman and in the early days we had a tent selling things like crotchet handkerchiefs, facecloths and doilies – they were always sought-after,” she said.
Later Mrs Maher became interested in helping in the Country Lifestyle pavilion while she was working as a learning support officer at Billabong High School and helped train young student models for the fashion parades each year.
“We will be working with models from Billabong again this year,” she said. “I have sent entry forms to interstate schools who have their own fashion parades.”
“I would like to encourage more students to learn how to sew; it’s a shame many schools don’t even run textiles programs anymore. It’s a bit of a dying art.”
The Henty Natural Fibres Fashion Awards is free and open to all designers, but the fabric in the garment must be at least 70 per cent natural fibre – wool, cotton, alpaca, silk, linen or combinations. (Leather is not classed as a natural fibre and can only be added as a trim.)
With prizes valued at about $5500, the awards attract high-profile designers and this year’s entries will be paraded in the Country Lifestyle pavilion at 1 pm on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 September.
The final parade will be held at 11 am on Thursday 25 September, with the winners announced at 1:30 pm.
The winner of the supreme garment will receive $1000 in prize money plus a Bernina 325 sewing machine valued at $1499 and there is also an encouragement award for the best garment by a student designer.
Entries are open until 9 September; for more information on the awards or to enter visit the field days’ website.
