Nine Lives Bazaar X Wandering Folk Collaboration Artist Q&A

Find out more about this special collaboration and the history between the two brands Wandering Folk and Nine Lives Bazaar.

Sharnee talks about how the ladies met, bonded and started working together, and how this amazing collection, Land of the Sun was born.

Nine Lives Bazaar and Wandering Folk have worked closely together for years, and you are friends with the founders. Can you tell us how this came to be?

Yes we have been working together for 10 years, and are now close friends. We met over emails when I was living in Sydney working as a freelance print designer. A mutual friend I went to high school with recommended me to Rose & Ness when they were looking to design their very first range of prints. We worked together remotely for months and finally met by chance at Bluesfest in 2015. We quickly realised we had lots of mutual friends. When I moved back to the Northern Rivers we bonded even more. I had started Wandering Folk and was running my business while working freelance. I was still the sole print designer for NLB. It was so nice to become part of the NLB community after working from home on my own for so many years. I joined their mumma clan when Rose and I had babies a day apart plus we are in a book club together. It's been amazingly supportive to grow our businesses and our families along side each other over the years.

NLB and Wandering Folk work so well together. Every NLB X WF picnic rug has sold out. Why do you think that is?

Yes our brand do work so well together, I think it’s our shared obsession for vintage prints and bygone eras. It’s so beautiful to watch how popular our collab picnic rugs have been over the years. They are all super limited ranges because we like people to feel extra special when they manage to secure one. It's our love for retro 70s prints fused into the prints of the collab picnic rugs is what makes them so popular.

This is the first time you’ve released a cooler bag and cushion as part of a collaboration. There is a whole set of accessories in Land of the Sun and a dress. What does this collaboration mean to you?

It’s very fun to bring this stunning print to life as a full picnic range. The green sure is a showstopper and the cooler bag print with the tan background is so beautiful. It’s always such a fun time working alongside Rose & Ness, super happy to have joined forces again for this collab.

Land of the Sun print was designed by you a few years ago and has proven timeless, used for years across apparel and accessories. What inspired the Land of the Sun design for you when you created it? Can you tell us a little about its design process?

I started drawing the original artwork for Land of the Sun in May 2020, with my 6 month old Velvet by my side. It was during the first covid lockdown so I was working from home. My process always starts with Rose & Ness briefing me on what they have magically dreamt up for the print. I do a bit of my own research for motifs and start the drawing process. I love drawing a simple outline by hand before I scan the artwork in to add colour in Photoshop. In Photoshop is where I add more details to the motifs and build the layout. Land of the Sun has a really detailed border print as well as the repeat large floral print. I designed these separate and then added them together in photoshop, sending screen shot of the artworks along the way to Rose & Ness to make sure I'm on the right track. They are very good at giving feedback as they can visualise exactly what the final print will look like. It's very helpful for me when designing. The colours that I start with never end up as the final colours. The girls are great with colour and play around with the artwork after I have finished it before they send it off to sample. I also love to check in and see if there has been issues with the print in the sample process, as this really helps me as a designer understanding the capabilities of printing. NLB did most of their early prints as screen prints, this meant I have to spend hours making each colour layer clean for the screens and keeping the colour limit to about 7 colours per print. When NLB moved to digital printing it was dreamy as the colour choices became infinite.

What inspires you about the NLB aesthetic? Do you have a favourite outfit from NLB?

Their love for the 70s and bold prints as I share this same love! Ooooh a favourite outfit, gosh that’s such a hard one! I LOVE the large floral slip dress – Sunkissed Dress in Barbados, and the last print I designed for NLB in 2022 the Desert Butterfly Jumpsuit.