ngali designer denni francisco on first nations fashion

First Nations fashion brand Ngali is making waves in the Aussie fashion industry. Founded by Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco in 2018, the label has taken part in various fashion events across the country, took home the National Indigenous Fashion Award in 2021 and 2022, and even hit the runway at Milan Fashion Week earlier this year.

Ahead of Ngali’s sold-out Melbourne Fashion Week runway tonight, and the opening of its new retail space at Melbourne Quarter on October 18th, we had a chinwag with Denni about the brand’s new collection, creativity and using fashion to celebrate culture and Country.

Tell us about the inspiration behind your latest collection. The Miya collection (‘Miya’ being from the Wiradjuri language, meaning ‘together’) looks at the journey of Ngali collections over time. As First Nations people, we're very conscious of journeys and storylines, and so this collection looks at all the things that have come before, things that we want to do in the future, and how Miya can tie into that.

We also brought more solid colours into this collection, to come together with the prints while still having the First Nations feel. The idea behind that was: what are the colours of Country that really support that?

Did you have any collaborators working with you? We’re still collaborating with Lindsay Malay, a Gija artist from the Kimberley.

What excites you about First Nations fashion at the moment? It's bubbling to the surface. The incredible creativity of First Nations people across the country has always been there. I think that now there's more light being shone on it and there's more opportunity for people to know about it. And the more that people know about it, the more they want to know. I think that fashion is a really great entry point for people to know more about First Nations, and embrace it more and more.

Showcasing that culture is one of the driving forces behind Ngali, isn’t it? Yes, absolutely. That's the whole ethos of what sits behind us as a brand. It's an exciting component for being able to celebrate culture and Country.

You’re opening a new retail studio at Melbourne Quarter. Can you tell me about your plans to offer mentorship for young creatives in the space? We had a studio space which we lost during COVID, and this has been our first opportunity to move into a studio space again. Once you have a space, you have more opportunity to invite people in. Whether it be customers who come in to see and try on the collection, or to see events that we’d like to hold there. In that process, we get to invite more creatives who could be mentored or supported in their own creative pursuits.

It's considered a retail space, but it's just so much more than that – it's a learning space, a collaboration space. And all of that sits at the heart of who Ngali is around collaboration, connectedness and togetherness. Finally, we have enough space to do all of that.

Have you had any significant creative mentors over the years? Most of my inspiration and learnings come from reflections on Country and within the First Nations space. So, not mentorship as such, but observation and finding quiet spaces to sit and reflect. I think that's where creativity comes from.

How has your vision for the brand evolved over the years? The evolution comes from the showing of possibilities; seeing where something could be taken. And certainly, the vision for the brand going forward is to expand our reach internationally. That is something we're taking action on. The more that we get to grow the business, the more royalties go back to our artists and the more we can support our kids’ education. And we also get to tell our stories to more and more people around the world.

What's your next big goal for Ngali? It’s definitely taking our products international.

You had a taste of that at Milan earlier this year. Yeah. That was just the beginning and it’s part of learning, part of testing, part of considering. On our website, we talk about the fact that Ngali operates in the lens of Yindayamarra, which translates to fashion that is slow, considered and respectful. So, everything that we do, we do under that. It's not a matter of pushing Ngali into international expansion. If that's the opportunity for us, that will show itself. We’ll have that vision, and then we will find the path to make that happen.