Innovative and directional Central Australian hairdresser, Headline4hair's Peter Tiller recently produced a photographic collection for his entry in the 2008 Hair Expo Australian Hairdressing Awards that truly captures the spirit of eco chic at so many levels.

Surrounded by the heartbreak and triumph of indigenous culture at the epicentre of the harsh Australian desert environment, Peter - in collaboration with fashion stylist Philomena Hali from the Central Craft Studio in Alice Springs and some of Australia's most brilliant aboriginal artists - has produced a beautiful collection of images that fuse these disparate elements whilst underpinning a brilliant environmental aesthetic and at the same time honouring the spirit of Australia's original inhabitants.

Peter's collection gained impetus as a result of Philomena creating the most magnificent fabric colours from her murky brew of dissolved puff balls (a unique fungus) that grows in Central Australia, which she had been fermenting in a dye pot for several months. Having recently purchased volumes of sericin impregnated Chinese silks (a long ‘grass-like' fibre that is a by-product of the processing of silk cocoons), she then proceeded to immerse large pieces of satin organza, silk net, satin chiffon, plain silk organza, cotton and even silk cocoons into this pot of puff ball ‘soup' (which also contained mineral salts to help bond the colour to the fabric). By some strange alchemy, each time the colours came out, the finished tones ranged from brown to chocolate and even salmon.

When Peter Tiller, co-owner of Headlines4hair, met with Philomena to discuss his Hair Expo entry, they agreed to work with these luscious fabrics to underpin his hair vision. The construction of the outfits was very unconventional, allowing the colours and texture of the cloth to guide the styling. True to the indigenous underpinnings of this collection, Philomena also used sinamay - a hat-making product made from the Abaca plant - to make sheer over-jackets with exaggerated collars to create an organic layered look.

Accessories also tapped into traditional culture with the use of nuts and seeds from the desert strung up on elastic or string. Ininti seeds were gathered from the bat winged coral tree. Gum nuts, quandong and sandalwood seeds were also collected and pierced with a red-hot wire heated at a campfire - a long and tedious process. Finally, acrylic paint patterns are patiently dotted on to each nut, then artistically threaded and spaced to create an exotic piece of wearable art.

Over many weeks of cutting, sewing, dyeing, getting cold feet, and having fun with emu feathers... finally the day of the shoot arrives and it's all abuzz.

The final link between indigenous fashion and art was the use as backdrops of the beautiful work of fine aboriginal artists Jeannie Mills Pwerl, Janelle Stockman Napeltjarri, Glady Kemarre and Evelyn Pultara, all represented by the Mbantua gallery in Alice Springs. As the pictures on these pages illustrate (see also the special Fresh Hair spread page 176) this resulted in brilliant collaboration that truly screams ‘eco chic'.

Great work Peter!
Let's see more of your eco chic in action. Keep those submissions coming! 
We'd love to hear from you... contact us anytime at publisher@culturemag.comau.

Cheers,
Anthony and Susa Wynne-Hoelscher
Publishers