New Zealander Frith Hucks has collaborated with a Sydney artist and musician to make one-of-a-kind scarves for the label Bay & Fyfe.
"Hermes meets Dame Vivienne Westwood" is how Frith Hucks describes the debut collection from her collaborative creative label Bay & Fyfe. The New Zealand born expat is now based in Sydney, where she has launched the label with its debut collaboration: the "Pastel Zoo" collection of four limited edition silk scarves featuring the bold, colourful work of Australian artist and musician Daimon Downey. Think of it as wearable art, with only 400 of each print being produced.
Hucks, who grew up in Taupo, established the label earlier this year with the idea of extending art into fashion and interiors; collaborating with contemporary artists and creatives from around the world to create art-inspired fashion and homewares. "The ambition is to use contemporary art as a foundation for the label to create beautiful things that people will treasure," she explains. "Throughout my career, I've been fortunate enough to live in many countries around the world, so I've built up a great collective of creative people. This has given me a big melting pot to develop ideas from." Hucks moved to Sydney 14 months ago, having lived in Europe for 12 years and worked as head of media for adidas International in Germany. "Setting up my own concept label was never something I'd planned, it just seemed like a natural development with the career I've had and the people I've been fortunate to meet. I'd always thought if I could harness the greatness of all those people into something collaborative and interesting, I might be on to something."
Bay & Fyfe's début collaboration with Downey (who was the MC of Australian band Sneaky Sound System) features commercially minded adaptations of the artists' original mixed media paintings, work originally exhibited in Sydney last year - where Hucks and Downey originally crossed paths. "It was one of those sliding door moments really. Daimon is music royalty over here in Australia and he was having his first solo art exhibition on my street. His opening night caused mayhem on the street, so once things calmed down, I looked in on the exhibition. I like to buy a piece of art every year, so it was his lucky day," she explains.
"He has an impressive talent for mixed media art and offbeat colour palettes. The minute I saw his work, I loved it. I also saw there was a lot of potential in his work to develop it on to fabric so I approached him with the idea to collaborate and do a collection of limited edition scarves based on his art. As luck would have it, he'd wanted to do something like this for a while."
