Grace Richards

Grace Richards is an emerging womenswear designer based in Sydney, Australia, who has has just completed a Bachelor of Design in Fashion and Textiles, with Honours, at The University of Technology, Sydney.
Throughout her degree, Grace has taken on board international opportunities including an exchange studying fashion at The University of Westminster in London, UK, volunteering at New York Fashion Week and a study tour to Delhi, India where she worked with local artisans on various textile collaborations.
Working predominantly with natural fibres, and generous amounts of fabric, Grace focuses on slow, tailored and bespoke fashion that utilises beautiful textile techniques and traditional artisanal hand skills in order to create something unique and timeless. The idea of personalising a garment, quality, durability and luxury are the basis within Grace’s designs with hand embellishment, stitch work and artisanal techniques featuring prominently. Grace’s graduate collection, ‘Antiquarian’ focuses heavily on hand crafted textiles including the long time art of smocking, where she pushed the boundaries for the way it has previously been used, featuring both the structural elements of the stitching as well as couching smocked pleats in place. Further she used unusual seaming techniques, by means of crocheting fabric and leather panels together in new ways. With a strong focus on family and history, silk-screened prints within the collection feature family convict records and many textiles skills utilised where passed through her family.