Michelle Jank completed her final year of fashion design at Sydney Institute of Technology in 1999. Since then she has had several solo shows at Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, shown at New York Fashion Week and styled fashion shoots for Vogue Australia and catwalk shows for various Australian designers.

She calls herself a magpie collector, seeking out jewellery, laces and textiles in antique and second hand shops. Delighting in their beauty and rich history these collected treasures form the starting point for Jank's designs. She collages, layers and hand stitches her found pieces into garments whose rich textures, visual appeal and mysterious and evocative past make them exclusive and treasuMichelle Jank's design concept reflections on time, place and people red pieces.

Design Concept

My garment represents a collage of inspired pieces that I have collected over the years. Egyptian metal fabric; some of the first fabric I have ever bought, a 1920s shawl from an antique market in Paris, Chinese embroidery and 1920s beadwork from my collector friend. It became a patch worked reflection of what I had discovered in the archives, a collection of stories. It was a fascinating walk through the movie set partly lit corridors. With white gloved hands we spent a day searching through the rows of delicately archived clothes in drawers. We all walked out with heads spinning.

Sourcing the Muse, became for me, a moment to reflect upon the history and background of pieces that I love, and an opportunity to work with my muses. It was a wonderful conclusion to the project working with some of the special people in life that inspire me. For it is these people, my family and friends, that give me the energy and inspiration to do what I do....