Louise Grahame

I’VE MOVED !

After 38 years I’ve ceased trade at Salamanca Market.

2018 – I have relocated to shop 36 Quail Street, St Helens 7216. Phone 0497320811

LOUISE GRAHAME

DESIGNER MAKER Est. 1979

Sustainable, exclusive, local.

Original Salamanca retailer of funky fairtrade unisex clothing. Frocks, Jeans, handknits, accessories, incorporate modern and unique unused, uncut vintage fabric lengths, remnants and yarns purchased from charitable organisations since 1970s.

. 1980s – studied fashion design, textiles, pattern and garment construction (2 years). Mum crochets. Patternmaker, cutter, seamster, knitter, launderer, dyer, buyer, Louise assembles garments on treadle sewing machines in solar powered house built of recycled materials.

. Also stocks Vintage Collectables

Mobile shop (with change room)

Sorry, no custom orders!

Final Market June 4th 2016 – a letter published in The Mercury

“Today everyone is keen to claim “Tasmanian made”. Tasmania attracts very welcome high-profile entrepreneurs like Matthew Evans, but please remember the pioneering bakers, makers and innovators who planted the crucial seeds that enabled the current flourishing appreciation of “Tasmanian”. Case in point is designer-maker Louise Grahame. Ahead of her time, she went out on a limb, stitching Made in Tasmania labels on her sustainably made clothing, when Tasmania/Australia suffered huge culture cringe. Often called and icon and an institution, Grahame’s individual style promoted the importance of local sustainable business and lifestyle via an embryonic Salamanca Market. For 38 years, Grahame was a colourful advocate of the enormous cultural and economic benefits Salamanca stallholders deliver to Hobart and Tasmania.
In 1996-2008 she inspired, employed and trained from her city store, listed with Myer in Cleo’s Best Shopper Guide. Thousands of “Louise Grahame Made in Tasmania” labelled garments travelled worldwide. Salamanca Market would not be the same without the talent and drive of pioneers like Louise Grahame, forced to sell out of Salamanca Market mid-2016 due to personal traumas and health issues. The Mercury’s coverage of this unique designer dates to early 1980 when Grahame, already a Salamanca stallholder since 1977, was a fashion design student at Hobart TAFE. Louise Grahame’s contribution to Salamanca, Hobart and Tasmania deserves recognition.”

Lynne Barren
New Town

An excerpt from an interview with Louise Grahame…….“I had my first stall at a nascent Salamanca Market in 1977, selling vintage clothing I had laundered, repaired, altered. By 1982 I was marketing full season. In 1984 I sold my first garment made at TAFE (fashion & design), a skirt, launching my Louise Grahame design label. All future designs including various first prize fashion show outfits, I sold, initially via local boutiques. By 1990 my expanding label spilled into my market stock. Small ranges and one off pieces gradually superseded vintage. Designing and making my own label became my main focus and stock. 1996-2008 I also ran my own inner city store (CLEO best shopper guide 1999). My style is cyclic, eclectic, colourful, incorporating most textiles. 1980s I made leather – jackets, skirts, bags. 1990s – my own jeans label. Since 2000, my output remains mixed; one off knits, patchworks and basic ranges….” read the full interview HERE