Page 36 - Fiji Traveller Issue 4

Backstage at the Sugarose show. Photo: Ben Wheeler

This is a fantastic coming-of-age narrative: the story of a side I saw this painting, and I was like, ‘Oh man this painting is
young designer growing to accept herself, an acceptance so beautiful and it’s sitting in darkness!’”
marked by a mature approach to complex emotions and feelings She brought it into the light, fell in love with it and incorporated
in her personal life, and the ability to conceive, design and make in into her developing designs.
garments on her own terms in her professional life.
The flower that adorns many of the garments in ‘Na I Dabedabe
In Full Bloom’, is a repeated motif that seems more essential,
more impactful, after hearing about her incredible journey. THESE LAYERS OF INFLUENCE AND INSPIRATION
During a regular visit to the Jade Spirit & Spa in the centre of involving birth and death, darkness and light, transformation,
Suva, she noticed a large door and was suddenly drawn to it. becoming, maturity, and the movement of circles and cycles only
“I’ve been going there since 2016, but I’ve never thought serve to emphasise and deepen the message of ‘blossoming’
to open that storage room. When I did, there was a hot water that is at the heart of ‘Na I Dabedabe In Full Bloom’.
system, some brushes and mops,” she says. “But then on the The profundity that sat behind the ten-minute Sugarose show

36
36