Helen Miller: SOOKii

Miller’s approach to slow fashion and sustainability is influenced by her Japanese mother’s post war and immigrant experience. The threads of scarcity and loss are woven into each creation and evidenced in the exhibition’s supporting dioramas depicting scenes of Helen’s garment making process. Each object is interwoven with themes of cultural identity, self preservation and acceptance.

In writing for the catalogue essay, Vanessa Van Ooyen explains: “Helen Miller instinctively knows the power of fabric, equally embracing its functional and symbolic properties. For the past 20 years, she has repurposed exquisite silk, shibori, brocade, plaid and indigo linen through her clothing label SOOKii. Miller’s atelier is more than a ‘dress shop’; in embracing the past life of fabric, acknowledging time and loss, stitching together and mending, altering and erasing, her beautifully crafted creations have a form and function beyond merely ‘dressing’ people.”

Van Ooyen continues: “SOOKii seeps into the life of those who walk beyond the pink mid-century façade in Highgate Hill, and it has become part of the fabric of the local community—a place of celebration, comfort, consolation and encouragement. In another time and place, SOOKii would have been a kind of village apothecary, tending to the needs of both mind and body.”

As part of our new opening model, we will be hosting ‘hourly sessions’ with refreshments at each session. Spaces are limited in accordance with Covid-19 Safe requirements, so RSVPs are required. Bookings will be taken until capacity is reached. Please see opening sessions and details below:

Friday 23 October
4-5pm
5-6pm
6-7pm
7-8pm

RSVP HERE

Image: Helen Miller, Peeling Layers Costume Series 1, 2020, Japanese silk, cotton thread, wadding, 142 x 90cm. Photo: Louis Lim.