By Rachel Speeding
Former Journalist with Gold Coast Bulletin, and Tutor with ACS Distance Education)
Anyone in the fashion industry knows that to really make a name for yourself and your label, you have to go out on a limb.
Renowned Western Australia designer Liz Davenport has done just that.
And not just with her new wild and lush Fashions Of The Forest collection either.
Ms Davenport has publicly announced herself an avid greenie.
“I have to acknowledge and embrace the word activist,” Liz says.
“I’m an environmental activist and I’m very proud because in the future it will make a difference.”
With boutiques in London’s Bond Street and throughout Australia, Liz is certainly in the position to begin making a difference with what she knows best … fashion.
Her new Fashions Of The Forest collection reveals her love of the environment.
The result is a range like nothing seen before, with fabrics boasting life-like foliage shaped into well-cut and fashionable designs , including some garments made from Italian pure silk chiffon that feature photographic prints of leaves and forest scapes.
“I wanted to present a fashion statement that reflects issues that are close to my heart,” Liz explains.
“We chose chiffon and silk fabrics and added leaf detailing to give the wearer the celestial feeling of calmly floating and drifting within the natural forest,’ she says.
And besides, Liz says textures and colours that occur in the natural environment are part of the fashionable tones and patterns this season.
The forest collection comprises 30 pieces with tantalising titles for the greenie within us all, such as “The Eucalypt dress’, the first piece of the collection.
This sequined ethereal camouflage print that combines the colours of the forest – khaki and sour green – is delicately hand cut, while embroidered branches with tiny satin leaves sprout from a veil of gauze. Others in the collection include Bark, Branches, Forest Floor, Spring and Falling Leaves.
“I hope this collection passes on the inspiration and pride I felt when designing each piece," Liz says.
“Whilst it gives a twist to traditional evening and fashion wear, it lets Australian women wear their heart on their sleeve for how they feel about this issue.”
And before all you cynical readers label the collection as just another clever gimmick to sell clothes, Liz is actually putting her money where her mouth is.
Her vision entails establishing the Guardians of The Forest Trust to assist environmental causes like protecting endangered species and highlighting awareness of the need to reduce the loss of old growth forests.
“Ten per cent of the purchase price of each garment sold will be donated to the trust,” Liz says.
“I also want funds raised from the sales to go towards establishing a scholarship for young people to study environmental science.”
Liz even had her latest fashion shoot, featuring TV personality Donna Gubbay, taken at Kingfisher Bay Resort on Fraser Island off the South-East Queensland Coast because she was so impressed at the resort’s eco-tourism stance.
While Liz is completely dedicated to the environment, she understands the practicality of her customers.
So if wearing a cheeky Eve-style leaf bikini is not exactly your idea of weekend dressing, Liz has less extreme forest fashion to suit.
Much of her other collections feature some kind of environmental theme in a less obvious way, such as autumn leaves blowing off the side of an anorak, and floral imagery melded into an exquisite rainbow of colour in jackets, skirts and particularly shirts.
And there is no imminent danger of her running out of inspiration either.
“I’ve just come back from the biggest fabric exhibition in the world,” she says, her voice full of excitement.
“It’s called the Paris Premier Vision and it has all the best fabric houses in Europe coming together for this wonderful display of fabric.
“There were so many fabrics with leaves, in beading and sequined and embroidered … there were leaves on everything.”
On her global travels, Liz says she has run into many designers who share similar environmental concerns.
“I’m gathering together quite a high-profile bunch of names and then, when the time is right, we’ll go to the next step.”
Without giving too much away, Liz says she is planning a series of gala fund-raising dinner auctions around Australia that will feature environmentally-friendly fashion.
“I’m looking at holding the first one on the Gold Coast soon and we’ll take it from there - people like Donna Gubbay are just as passionate about things as I am so we are all slowly but surely getting together and planning something big.
“Donna is extremely supportive … she has got such a passion because she actually has a property near Sydney with old growth forest on it.”
Liz is unashamedly eager to spread the green word whenever she has the platform, including inviting the Australian Conservation Foundation to speak at her national collection launches.
“People think that the powers that be are supposed to be looking after things,” she says.
“We think we have people looking after our best interest and it’s a terrible thing to discover that their vested interest overrides community interest.
“That shocked me when I discovered it, and it was that sense of injustice that triggered me to try to do my best to do something about it.
“I can’t allow that to keep happening and if I can’t tell people that, then I have failed.”
But Liz is seeing heartening improvements take place, such as the inclusion of a ‘green ethic’ in the preamble to the proposed Australian Constitution.
“It says that as Australians, we must be mindful of our responsibility to protect our unique natural environment and I was so excited to see that included,” Liz says.
“It really is up to each of us to do our best.”