Business attire is dress code for today’s Rural Press Club lunch at Tattersalls so I’m wearing this black silk top (found in op shop as is, never worn) teamed with silk-embellished linen skirt.

Speaking today is National Farmers’ Federation president Brent Finlay about the future for family farming in Australia, in what is the UN’s International Year of Family Farming 2014.

About 99 percent of Australian farms are family-owned and operated, but the challenges involved in growing food and fibre for the world include drought, low profitability, rising debt and a dwindling rural workforce.

In addition to being NFF president, Brent is a wool producer from the Traprock region of southern Queensland whom I met 15 years ago at a Wear Wool Wednesday fashion parade in the Red Chamber at Queensland Parliament House when I was working for then Minister for Primary Industries Henry Palaszczuk. 

That was then … this is now … and I’m back on the trail of natural fibres. Fabrics made from wool, cotton, linen and silk are beautiful natural resources and I’m spending this year demonstrating how we can reuse existing natural-fibre clothing instead of always buying new.

The black silk top is untouched and as I bought it from an op shop in a posh suburb. The skirt was long, multi-panelled linen which I cut to knee-length. While watching TV, I roughly snipped up pieces (1-2cm wide, 5-10cm long) of different coloured blue silks saved from an earlier project, then sewed them on to the skirt along with other strips and pieces. Naturally I incorporated some ubiquitous heart-shapes, fitting for Valentine’s Day and care shown for the environment by reusing fibres from nature.