Australian made

When I first started this project, I went to the haberdashery in Ballina and asked, ‘how can I make a work shirt out of hemp?’. They instantly responded with, ‘go overseas’, until a lady called Joellete, who was out the back said, ‘I’ll make it for you’.

From an economic perspective with competing labour costs, Australian made barely makes sense.

Expensive labour equals expensive shirts and we are in a practice of consuming clothing cheaply and at breakneck speeds that has made the fashion industry the third largest contributor to pollution in the world.

Our ability to produce Australian grown, milled and made clothing in Australia has largely diminished due to globalised trade and labour.

In our region of the Northern Rivers we are onto our last machinist mechanic and our dedicated cutter lost his workshop and tools in a landslide during the floods.

Although we do small batches of shirts at hg maker, we make locally in order to help sustain and grow our making ecosystem.