Tactile Textiles

Sun Herald

Sunday November 26, 2006

PENELOPE BARKER

Meet a young designer who's won the chance of a lifetime.

AT 24, Sarah Perry is about to realise her dream of working with some of Britain's finest textile designers and will study at the prestigious Central Saint Martins art college in London.

The young Sydney textile designer and businesswoman has been selected as one of six young winners in this year's British Council Realise Your Dream Awards for young Australian designers and will leave for Britain next month.

Winners each receive a $10,000 grant towards expenses and are able to nominate which leading British designers they would like to work with. Perry has chosen to do work experience with leading homewares company Designers Guild, fashion label Eley Kishimoto, Scottish textile designers Timorous Beasties and wallpaper designer Erica Wakerly.

"My main objective now is to gain as much as possible from this experience," Perry says.

Her homewares label, Perry & Fowles, is stocked in almost 50 outlets around Australia and overseas. Perry originally studied apparel manufacturing.

"I had a bit of a passion for fashion but got on a tangent and started to focus on textiles because I couldn't find the type of fabrics I wanted to work with," she says. "Homewares such as cushions offer a blank canvas to really show off the design of the textiles."

In 2003, Perry met fellow textile designer Joanna Fowles, now based in London, at a printmaking course.

"We really enjoyed the course; both of us finished with distinction and wanted to continue printing," says Perry, who also undertook a small business course and got a grant to set up a print room.

At first, the pair sold their delicate hand-screen-printed textiles, cushions and other accessories at Paddington and Bondi markets to gauge the response to their designs. Their pieces were so well received they soon approached five stores, which all ordered their range.

Perry prints most of the textiles herself at the studio of Publisher Textiles.

"I thoroughly enjoy the hands-on aspect of screen printing; it gives me more control and each item, due to the nature of hand printing, is unique," she says.

"It's been a lot of hard work, but persistence is the key."

Perry & Fowles is holding a joint studio sale with fashion label Rittenhouse on December 9 and 10 at 11-13 Burnell Place, East Sydney. On sale will be samples, fabric remnants and limited edition light shades that have been hand printed with images from the Perry & Fowles studio.

For more information, see www.perryandfowles.com or phone (02) 9331 1992 for stockists.