Arty Party Dress #2

My other arty party frock is a vivid design by Aboriginal artist Jimmy Pike transformed into textiles under licence by Desert Designs: I bought this dress on my first trip to Western Australia in 2000. I was working on a rail privatisation assignment and decided to fly in a day early and do a little sightseeing before things got crazy busy. I caught the train out to Fremantle on a glorious Sunday afternoon and strolled around the markets and laneways.

The bright garments in the Desert Designs window caught my eye. I tried on several dresses but decided they were too flamboyant for work and left without making a purchase. A week later, when I next emerged into sunshine again, I realised that I must have left my reasonably expensive sunglasses in the dressing room. I called the store and, sure enough, they had found my sunglasses. I took this as a sign that I was destined to buy a dress too. After much describing over the phone (this was pre-digital camera days after all), a dress was sent to me by mail with my sunglasses wrapped inside. I lost the sunglasses a few years later but I still have the dress. I’d love another but Jimmy Pike died in 2002 and the Desert Designs label is no longer in existence.

I see that throughout 2011, there is an exhibition of Jimmy Pike works produced for Desert Designs in Ningbo, China:

Desert Psychedelic’: Jimmy Pike is a flamboyant exhibition of textiles and prints on paper celebrating the creative genius of Jimmy Pike. Curated by Gallery artisan in Brisbane, the exhibition, to be shown at the Ningbo Museum of Art, China, features works produced for Desert Designs which was launched in 1985 to showcase Jimmy’s work. Jimmy Pike had an ability to capture the essence of the Australian desert and landscape through a particularly bold and striking use of colour that gained Pike worldwide recognition through the application of his art to textiles.