Media

Media Release
July, 2004



 

 
Uncovering Australia’s Design Talent
 
It is a long hard road to get your designs into finished product and hanging on the racks of Australia’s boutiques, and 10 times harder if you are living in an isolated or regional part of Australia, but due to the efforts of the Textile Clothing and Footwear Resource Centre of Western Australia Inc. (TCFWA) and the Perth based Belmont Business Enterprise Centre Inc. (BEC) over 650 women from across Australia will have the opportunity to participate in specialized Online mentoring, Business Workshops, Group Meetings and one on one mentoring with TCF industry specialists.
designedge – TCF Australia Uncovered Business Skills national project will be launched by Senator Susan Knowles representing the Minister Small Business and Tourism Joe Hockey at the Belmont BEC’s 10th Birthday celebrations on July 7th 5pm-7pm, at Belmont BEC offices 7 Fairbrother Street Belmont.
The national designedge project is scheduled to commence in August 2004 and run through to November 2005, the Designedge – TCF Australia Uncovered Business Skills project has scheduled a series of specialized activities that will be held from far North and South WA, Darwin, Alice Springs, Geelong, Hobart and also in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth during other major fashion trade events such as Fashion Exposed, Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, Australian Fashion Awards held in Brisbane and Perth Fashion Festival.
Carol Hanlon, Manager of TCF WA and Belmont BEC, designed the TCF Business Skills Development project based on her 37 years of experience both directly and indirectly within the Australian fashion industry.   Carol operated her own fashion label and clothing factory in Geelong, Victoria for 20 years and appreciates many of the restraints of operating regionally based. Over the past 10 years Carol has run the Belmont BEC and 6 years ago also established TCF WA.  The only TCF Centre of its kind operating in Australia, Carol is constantly receiving requests for assistance from across Australia from women who do not know where to turn to get their garments or products over those many hurdles in developing their business in a complex and fast moving industry.
Special focus of the project will be to concentrate on young fashion designers and those from multicultural and/or indigenous backgrounds.  With the creative industries now being recognized by government and economic development organizations as being one of the driving forces in attracting increased tourism, new residents to locate to an area and new business opportunities flowing when there is a vibrant and creative industry sector happening.
TCF WA & Belmont BEC has thousands of people accessing its services with clients coming from all over the state. One young girl drove from Broome just to attend a Starting a Fashion Label Workshop given by Carol, but others fly from Esperance and Albany to attend events and TCF workshops.  A number of indigenous designers Carol has assisted have gone onto international acclaim within Asia or in Europe with their textiles and garments.
When judging the Northern Terrrority Fashion Awards in 2003 last year, Carol was impressed with the talent and provided workshops and mentoring sessions whilst visiting the event.  Once Carol identifies a need within a community, she goes about creating a project to provide assistance and support to those in need.  Carol is currently also presenting her Starting a Fashion Label workshops at the Sydney BEC this week when Mercedes Australian Fashion Week is showcasing and Melbourne during TCF International where her workshop will be held at the Melbourne Fashion Design Incubator.
designedge – TCF Australia uncovered, in 2003 was originally a  trade exhibition staged in Perth to provide a showcase of fashion design talent from independent operators, of which many successful export stories still continue to flow from that inaugural event.    In 2004 designedge – TCF Australia uncovered Business Skills project will take a different slant and will concentrate on uncovering design talent in remote and regional Australia and provide business skills development in the form of online mentoring, specialist workshops and meeting and one on one mentoring and business matching opportunities.
TCF WA is now calling for interested designers to apply to be part of this exciting project which will involve the completion of a questionnaire, design and business profile, a selection panel will then consider applications.   Opportunities are also available for experienced TCF industry operators and designers who would like to contribute something back to the industry and participate as a ‘online’ mentor, speaker or business matching mentor.  Interested persons can email designedge@tcfwa.com to receive an application form.
Designedge – TCF Australia uncovered Business Skills project is an Australian Government funded service under the Small Business Enterprise Culture Program and is supported by the Textile Clothing Footwear Resource Centre of WA Inc. (TCFWA) and Belmont Business Enterprise Centre Inc. (BBEC)
 
Belmont BEC is a non profit community association established to assist people to start a business or to improve an existing business.  TCFWA is also a non profit community association established to assist the state’s textile, clothing, footwear and leather industry.   Other community projects of the Belmont BEC include the Belmont Clothes Library; Multicultural Business Support Services; Business Workshops for Youth and Australian Designer Showcase projects.
For further information on the TCF WA and it’s projects visit www.tcfwa.com
For further information on the Belmont BEC and it’s projects visit www.belmontbec.com  
 
TCF WA Media Contact: Carol Hanlon
Email carol@tcfwa.com or carol@belmontbec.com
Phone: 61 8 9479 3777
Mobile: 0417 963 231
Email: info@tcfwa.com