Briana Enoch is a Kuku-Yalanji, Quandamooka and Kaantju woman who founded JARAWEE, (meaning, pretty little bird), in 2015. Inspired by her love for Country and passion for art, Briana began painting shoes and handbags with intricate patterns and bright colours, telling the story of her heritage. In a chance meeting at an industry event, her shoes caught the eye of Jimmy Choo himself, who asked to have a closer look at one of her designs.
Emboldened by early success and high interest in her hand-crafted accessories, in 2021, Briana debuted a couture piece at the 2021 Afterpay Australian Fashion Week (AAFW) to wide critical acclaim. The dress has been part of the exhibition “Eucalyptusdom” at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney 2021/22. This piece and its success would inspire her first high-end fashion collection “Quandamooka Collection 2021”, which was showcased at Brisbane Fashion Festival in September. The bold couture pieces were inspired by her father’s Country and the Goori (saltwater) people, who live where the ocean meets the sea and sand.
Since then, Briana’s work has been featured on iconic Australian runways including Melbourne Fashion Week, the First Nations Fashion and Design runway at AAFW, the Global Indigenous Runway in Melbourne and the Brisbane Fashion Festival. The JARAWEE label has also been short-listed for the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, Fashion Designer Award, Indigenous Business Excellence Awards and more over the past few years.
Briana says of her label JARAWEE, “When you wear a JARAWEE design, you are taking a bit of country with you.”
When she is not designing, Briana’s passion for her community and the arts sees her dedicating her time to supporting young Aboriginal Artists in Kuranda North Queensland through her business Din Din (story waters) Aboriginal Arts Gallery, creating a safe space for learning art, and the business and industry aspects to create a successful practice.
Ultimately, Briana would like to take JARAWEE abroad, selling and showcasing internationally to Paris, London and New York, whilst establishing connections with high-end Australian boutiques and online platforms. In order to do so, she is looking to establish sustainable manufacturing processes that can balance the demand for scaling with her intricate design process.
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