Chinese New Year Coup for Cairns Fashion Brand

As Cairns is in the throes of welcoming its many Chinese visitors for Lunar New Year celebrations, local fashion brand, Mainie has achieved a significant milestone in its bid to be recognised as a distinctively Australian, luxury brand. From this week, Mainie’s collection of silk scarves, wraps and tops is being showcased for sale alongside the world’s most coveted designer labels at DFS Galleria.

According to Mainie’s creative director, Charmaine Saunders, this partnership is a real coup for her team – an achievement they have worked hard to realise since launching last August.

“We are confident that our unique melding of Australia’s 40,000 year old Indigenous arts heritage and luxurious silks from the fabled artisan, silk-making cities in China will fit perfectly with DFS Galleria’s truly special department store experience. From the outset, DFS Galleria has been in our scope and we have been committed in our negotiations to make it a reality. We believe, that from here, the sky is the limit in terms of where Mainie will go. As a partnership, DFS Galleria gives us wings to fly.

“Mainie is not just about fashion for fashion’s sake. Our brand is imbued in rich and sustainable values and we have designed our products to be particularly appealing to discerning travellers wanting to take home something of quality and substance. Each garment tells its own Dreamtime story on silk – these have been painted by the women Warlpiri artists from the Tanami Desert of central Australia and have been handed down from generation to generation. Mainie is also committed to ethical, free trade with all royalties (from sales) benefitting the artists,” said Charmaine.

Mainie

Mainie is a Cairns-made fashion and gift line founded by business partners Charmaine Saunders and Denis Keeffe. Mainie’s maiden collection comprises 12 unique and authentic designs crafted by the traditional artisans of China’s fabled Silk Road and featuring authentic Aboriginal Dreamtime stories in sundrenched, glorious colour from Australia’s Red Centre.

Since launching six months ago, Mainie has taken a series of giant steps in its journey to securing global market recognition with retail exposure in Cairns, Gold Coast and Melbourne airports along with high end retail precincts in Sydney at The Rocks and Circular Quay.

Mainie’s second collection comprising a further 10 designs and new artworks will be launched in April for Autumn Winter 16.

What is so special about Mainie?

Mainie is a label strongly committed to Fair Trade principles. All artworks have been acquired ethically under license through the internationally acclaimed Warlukurlangu Art Centre (warlu.com). For more visit, www.mainie.com