East Timor ‘Tais’ Fashion Exhibition

Another exhibtion was the Tais’ Fashion Exhibition held as part of Melbourne fashion week in March 2003.

Craft Victoria together with Melbourne Fashion Week held a National Forum titled ‘Between You and Me’ on 18 March. It addressed the role of craft practitioners in mediating between Western and traditional cultures including a segment on East Timor.

Melbourne East Timorese Handicrafts Support (METHS) in conjunction with Craft Victoria and the Alola Foundation in Dili were funded by the Myer Foundation to bring Milenia Verdial, an East Timorese textile and fashion designer to Melbourne to take part in the forum and put on a fashion parade of her own designs.

Melenia Verdial is a young Dili textile and fashion designer who has had no opportunity for professional training. Still she is designing textiles (Tais), designing and preparing women’s clothes with them and presenting them in fashion parades in Dili. A presentation of Milenia’s designs was a way of encouraging exports of the textiles and designs to Australia.

On the evening of the 18th a highly successful Tais” Fashion Parade was held at 45 Downstairs, Flinders Lane featuring Milenia’s fashion designs providing a modern form for Tais Textiles from East Timor, along with other Australian designers. Milenia also presented her show at the East Timor Melbourne Expo, a fundraiser at Collingwood Town Hall and another at the East-West Gallery in Malvern in Melbourne. She also spent time with well-known Sydney designer, Nelson Leong, an expatriot Timorese.

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