Bay & Fyfe is an Australian based creative concept label. “We collaborate with artists to create beautiful pieces of art inspired fashion.” The label has just launched it’s first collaboration with Australian born DJ turned artist, Daimon Downey. Downey was part of ARIA winning music group Sneaky Sound System, before he picked up the paint brush full time.
“We were drawn to his impressive talent with mix media and use of off-beat colour palettes,” says creative director, Frith Hucks. “His art and sculptures are proudly displayed in many homes around the world. Now his art is taking centre stage for our collection of limited edition silk scarves.”
The collection entitled ‘Pastel Zoo’ features 4 icon prints, screen printed onto silk luxe. Each scarf is over a metre in size and their versatility make it a must for any fashion-forward woman who loves finding unique pieces.
The label has already developed quite a celebrity following with the likes of Miranda Kerr and sisters Kylie and Dannii Minogue all proud supporters of the label. The collection is designed in Australia and screen printed on to 100% silk luxe.
We took five with Bay & Fyfe founder, Frith Hucks from her Sydney base to discover the story behind the name; how the collaboration with Daimon came about; and her personal background working in fashion throughout Europe.
Why did you launch Bay & Fyfe?
Rather than why, it was more just a case of what and when. Being creative and conjuring up ideas is something I’ve always done. As a 9 yr old I use to make my mother take me to the local flee market and I’d ‘set up shop’ in our yellow trailer. Now granted, that didn’t have business enterprise written all over it, but the writing was on the wall. It was then a case of waiting a few more years for the right idea to come along.
What is the idea behind it?
We collaborate with contemporary artists and creative people from around the world, to create art inspired fashion and home ware. The ambition is to use contemporary art as a foundation for the label to create beautiful things that people will treasure.
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. Each collection is a labour of love, with people from all over the world getting involved to create beautifully finished, limited edition collections that hopefully will stay around forever.
What is the story behind the name?
Hmm, well I’d like to give you some great meaningful, intelligent answer, but unfortunately there isn’t one. Bay and Fyfe were just two names I liked and I thought they sounded good together. As simple as that I’m afraid.
How important are collaborations for you?
Very important – it’s what the label is about. The success of the label will depend on the caliber of artists and creative minds I can attract to collaborate with us. We collaborate wherever we can – with photographers, cinematographers, bloggers etc – all those talented people who might need a leg up to get noticed or can help us out with the same. It really has started to become a collective of creative people helping each other by doing what they love.
It seems that creativity does breed creativity too. I was approached by another creative group called Stars of Independents (www.starsofindependents.com) to become a ‘Star’ and featured on their blog. Five weeks ago I’d never heard of them, now I have a connection to a whole new group of talented people to draw inspiration from.
Tell me about your first collaboration, with Daimon Downey – ie, the prints themselves. How did the collaboration come about; did you know each other or was there an approach?
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.
He has an impressive talent for mixed media art and off beat 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 onto 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.
I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve produced together. The collection – entitled Pastel Zoo – really is wearable contemporary art. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the finished the product to look and feel like. Think Hermes meets Dame Vivienne Westwood and you get what I was after. To find this kind of quality silk, screen printing and finishing isn’t easy. We had some comical disasters along the way.
How often will you release ranges/collaborations?
That depends. On a good day it’s every 3-4 months. On a bad day when the forces of nature seem to be working against me, I’m not so sure. I have a pretty clear plan for the next year, but a lot of it will depend on how successful this first collection is. From day one enticing online shoppers from around the globe has always been a crucial part of the plan. If I’d set this up thinking retailing in Australia or New Zeland alone would deliver the sales I need, then I may as well have kissed my idea (and investment) goodbye.
Tell me about your background – you have worked in international marketing and been in Europe for 12 years – where did the idea for a fashion/creative label come from?
I landed in London to do my OE and never looked back really. That ‘can do kiwi, I’ll give it a crack’ attitude opened up so many doors. I ended up in Herzogenaurach, Germany, as Head of Media for adidas International. It’s a brilliant company to work for. To understand operationally how a global company like that ticks is an opportunity not many people get, so I count myself as very lucky. I was there during the global financial crisis and whilst it wasn’t necessarily pleasant, I’ve never worked so hard and learnt so much.
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.
When did you move to Sydney, and why?
I’ve been in Sydney for 14 months now. After 12 years away I thought it was time to get slightly closer to home. Sydney was an experiment to see if I could wean myself off Europe and so far so good.
See the entire range at the next Bags & Accessories Fair co-located with Fashion Exposed from 26-28 August at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. For more info and to register, visit www.bagsaccessories.com.au