A jacket designed by Barbara McLean ODonovan (Class of 1982) has been worn at fashion events in Sydney and New York this week by international fashion expert, Jude Kingston.

Geraldton artist, Barbara O’Donovan, who started designing bedding, haberdashery and wallpaper, recently started designing clothing.

“Our home was full of beautiful old religious prints and full-size church statues,” she recalls, explaining how her Catholic upbringing in Bendigo influences her work, which often features flora and fauna, as well as vintage religious imagery.

After attending a global sourcing event for designers in Sydney last year, Barbara met long-time fashion industry guru Jude Kingston, who mentors and collaborates with designers and fashion entrepreneurs to bridge the gap between creative vision and product development.

Jude Kingston was impressed with Barbara’s work, finding it “unique and individual”. She asked Barb if she could wear one of her creations to some fashion events.

After Jude posted photos of herself wearing a Barbara O’Donovan passenger coat in New York and Sydney and tagged her in the post, Barb has had an influx of online orders from across the world and a massive surge in social media followers.

“When I first put the original design out for the passenger coat, it actually went viral overnight,” Barbara said.

Her recent success comes from decades of hard work. “It's a lot of work, and you just have to believe in yourself and love what you do, or else no one else is going to love it.”

Barbara was one of the artists who recently took part in the Jubilee Community Art Show as part of our Sesquicentenary celebrations. Her artwork, ‘Convent Light’, a digital print on cotton rag, was quickly snapped up in the incognito show.

In her artist statement, she said, “The face, partially obscured and softened, echoes the religious iconography that surrounded me as a child—the saints, the statues, the paintings lit by candlelight. There was always a melancholy to them. Not sadness exactly, but a quiet knowing. A stillness. That feeling has stayed with me and continues to shape my work.”

Barbara was recently interviewed by the ABC for the Midwest and Wheatbelt program and has been invited to present her first collection, featuring her signature dark botanicals, on the runway at New York Fashion Week in September.

The next event on the Sesquicentenary calendar is the Gala Dinner on 5 September. Tickets are now on sale.