DESIGNER / BlackFish

designer:
Seffwen Titasey
location:
Meanjin (Brisbane), QLD
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attributes:
contemporary streetwear, lino-printed fabrics to wearables, seemingly mismatched elements
Tell us about your backstory! Any experiences that may have contributed to your evolution in your field.
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My name is Seffwen McKenna Titasey, a descendant of the Panay clan from Mabuiag Island in the Maluilgal nation. My mother is a white Australian woman, and my father is a Torres Strait Islander man. Growing up with two different cultural backgrounds has profoundly shaped who I am and influences my design process and outcomes.
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I was born on Waiben (Thursday Island), a small island at the northern tip of Queensland. Whenever the weather was good, my parents would take me and my brothers out on the boat to fish, dive, or spend entire days on nearby islands. Being on the water is an indescribable experience that I will always treasure. These memories continue to inspire and inform my work, especially in my BlackFish designs.​​​​
Education in the Torres Strait was limited, so at 10 years old, I moved to the mainland to attend high school. Coming from a community where everyone looked like me and spoke my language, the transition was a major culture shock. I felt displaced and hated it. But in Year 7, all students were required to participate in an elective rotation each term, and I found myself in a visual arts class.​There, I was given a piece of lino and carving tools and allowed the freedom to create whatever design I desired. For the first time in a long while, I felt a sense of peace. My art teacher noticed my passion, and she may have thought I was pretty good! She gifted me my first lino tool set, a gesture I’ll always appreciate.
At the time, I felt out of place—I struggled with English, couldn’t write or comprehend it like my peers, and was one of the few Blak students in the school. Despite these challenges, that gift sparked something in me that remains with me today. Even though I no longer use the rusty, blunt tools, I’ll forever keep the set as a keepsake. ​It had been a journey prior to deciding that my future and passion were in fashion, but there are a few things that haven’t changed: my love for designing and carving lino prints, and my love for the creatures and life on the reef of the Torres Strait.​
P.S. I still get the chance to go out on the boat and dive on the reefs near Cairns with my brothers. I often find myself mesmerised by the underwater world—the movements, the shapes, and the flow of everything. But this is between us, okay? I can’t have my brothers finding out I’m slacking off and not pulling my weight when it comes to dinner that night!




How does sustainability influence your design decisions, and how has your approach evolved over time?
​In my second year of fashion at QUT, one of the unit criteria was to exclusively use reclaimed materials to prioritise sustainability. I embraced this challenge and found it exciting to realise that my ideas could be unfeasible with the resources available, forcing me to think on my feet and adapt quickly. Through this experience, I discovered the value of working in panels during both pattern-making and fabric construction. Even though I wasn’t always using identical fabrics, I learned how to find similar alternatives that allowed me to create the designs I envisioned without compromising on sustainability or creativity.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face when incorporating sustainability into your work, and how do you overcome them?​
The biggest challenge I’ve faced when incorporating sustainability into BlackFish is the fact that our fabrics are either recycled or deadstock. Once we’ve used up a particular fabric, we can no longer produce that exact product in the same material. However, my biggest challenge is more emotional. I find it difficult to inform customers who are eager for a specific product that it is no longer available in that fabric. It’s hard knowing that I can’t fulfill their request, even though I wish I could. However, using virgin materials to produce more is simply not worth the possible environmental and social impacts.
Any people, artists, designers, movements, or things that inspire you to make your art?​
My biggest inspiration comes from the physicality of a skeleton. The BlackFish print’s center is the skeleton of a fish, and the surrounding pattern moves in harmony with this skeletal structure.
Nearly all living beings have a skeletal system—whether internal or external—it provides shape, facilitates movement, and offers protection. I am in awe of how each skeletal system is uniquely designed and purposeful for its respective animal. What I find most beautiful is how these systems vary in shape and size yet all serve the same essential functions. This design by nature is something I want to replicate in my work.
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​Random fact about yourself? (fun/unusual hobbies, guilty pleasure, anything!)
A random fact about me is that I used to want to be a doctor and even got halfway through an undergraduate nursing degree. However, I soon realised that no other outlet could replace the true challenge I love and live for—creative expression. That said, I do have the best and most hilarious stories from my nursing adventures!​
