• About Remuse •
Bemvindo. Welcome.
About Me.
My name is Tamara Leacock, and I am a designer, stylist, costume designer and textile artist who works with recycled materials, natural and low impact dyes, artisan textile techniques, and Afro-futurist aesthetics to create fluid textile explorations of natural colour and mood. Originally from Lenapehoking (New York) where I operated under the artist name, ReciclaGEM, alongside working in the commercial styling industry, I have since relocated to Narrm (Melbourne) to launch my contemporary unisex label, REMUSE. I have trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Paris American Academy and received a dual Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University. I further went on to pursue a M.A. in Individualized Study at New York University focused on fashion as a vehicle for social justice. I am currently a sessional lecturer at Collarts in the Fashion and Sustainability and Fashion Marketing departments.
I create all pieces from design, to hand dye, to manufacture in my Ethical Clothing Australia accredited design studio respectfully in Collingwood, Melbourne, Yálla-birr-ang, on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Peoples in Naarm.
My work is heavily informed by my Bahamian, Brazilian, and Kittitian heritage alongside my African American cultural roots by way of multi disciplinary art movement and genre Afro Futurism. Afro Futurism, first introduced by Jazz musician and composer Sun Ra, is a movement that began as a way of escapism and freedom for African American communities in the 1960s and onwards experiencing racial violence within the United States. Sun Ra used music, costuming and associated video clips, movies and visuals to explore "ideas of being 'alien' and 'other' through jazz with an 'astral' feel." (Source)
REMUSE as inspired by this tradition of Afro Futurism reframed in ethical manufacturing and sustainable plant based materials was created to provide an avenue for sartorial freedom and a sense of home to all those whether culturally or sartorially who have experienced this feeling of othering. REMUSE, a wearable art practice rooted in resilience and reimagining new futures for adornment for contemporary bodies, is designed to feel like home.
About the Label.
(Photographer: Timothy Treasure)
REMUSE is a Melbourne based clothing label where futurism meets nature. Fusing artisan techniques, low-impact dye technology, and natural fibers, REMUSE investigates the ways the future of a fashion is simply fashion that takes inspiration from the earth.
The philosophy behind the label is to create small, ethically produced, trans-seasonal collections, released quarterly at the time of each Equinox and each Solstice. Each collection gives REMUSE an opportunity to reconsider its impact and material choices.
The name "REMUSE" was conceptualised in 2015 from the idea of reclaiming one's inner musedom.. REMUSE is synonymous with reclaiming one's power, personal genius and inner zeitgeist back. We all have access to the creative genius.
(Photographer: REMUSE)
About the Materials.
REMUSE utilizes natural fabrics, vegan materials, both fiber reactive and mindfully concocted plant-based dyes, and fabrics sourced both locally and globally, with a constant exploration of GOTS certified organic materials, deconstructured and recycled fabrics, and our foundation, unbleached and unaltered calico. Each REMUSE products are designed and manufactured within our design studio in Collingwood, Victoria, and Ethical Clothing Australia accredited.
As a limited edition and made to order brand, REMUSE welcomes commissions of custom designs that more intimately speak to our clients' personal ethics, while striving to evolve as a sustainable, body and size inclusive label with each collection and design.
About the Ethics.
The ethical principles that guide the label include the following:
- Plant Based and Low Impact Fibre Reactive Dyes
- Knowledge Sharing + Communal Capacity Building
- Local, Ethically Accredited Manufacturing
- Non-Animal Based Natural Fibers + Materials
- Reuse of Textile Waste
- Non Tokenistic Diversity + Empowered Cultural and Experiential Diversity in Front and Behind the Camera
(Photographer: James Taylor)
Many light years in space
I’ll wait for you.
Where human feet have never trod,
Where human eyes have never seen.
I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you."
