HoMie and Clothing the Gaps have joined forces for a limited-edition range of upcycled T-shirts

Together, on purpose.

Melbourne’s ever-evolving output of creative talent means collaboration is almost inevitable. In the fashion industry specifically, even the biggest of cities can feel small. Sharing the love – and ideas, resources and studio spaces – doesn’t just forge beautiful friendships, it also produces really special pieces of fashion and art.

Despite working together for four years, Naarm-based streetwear labels and social enterprises HoMie and Clothing The Gaps (CTG) had never collaborated on clothing. With both brands so strongly rooted in community, the perfect partnership required time for ideation, planning and plenty of discussions.

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“This collab has literally been years in the making,” explains Sianna Catullo, Head of Brand and Marketing at Clothing The Gaps. “… This new collection takes excess tees from both Clothing The Gaps and HoMie, cuts them in two and creates two new tees combing elements of both brands.”

Last Saturday, as part of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Sianna and Marcus Crook, co-founder and Creative Director of HoMie, debuted the long-awaited collection of upcycled T-shirts at Collingwood Yards. And as of yesterday, Together with Purpose is available to the public. Below, Marcus and Sianna speak on how the collaboration was brought to life.

Can you tell us a little about how this collaboration came to be?

Marcus: HoMie and Clothing The Gaps have been working together for four years now and we’ve shared resources, contacts, content creation and staff. We’ve always spoken about a clothing collab but have never found a good time to progress with it. Now with the possibility of running an event without any major hiccups, it seemed a fitting time to be able to bring our communities together for a product and a party!

Sianna: This collab has literally been years in the making! It builds on a brand friendship with HoMie, which started back in 2020 when the team joined the campaign to Free The Flag. Together, we collaborated on a bucket hat as a conversation starter… with the profits supporting the campaign.

We didn’t rush to create more pieces together and instead invested in our relationship by sharing resources, staff and ideas! At Clothing The Gaps, we’re driven to create merch with a message that sparks conversations and supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. For us, the conversation and purpose always come before the merch, and we didn’t want to force anything.

We knew there would come a time when we would come together on purpose – which is also the name of our new collection. This new collection takes excess tees from both Clothing The Gaps and HoMie, cuts them in two and creates two new tees combing elements of both brands. The new… [collection] Together on Purpose enables us to tell our story – streetwear labels… [and] certified Victorian Social Enterprises that put people before profit.

Clothing the Gaps and HoMie are both brands with a real sense of purpose. How is this collab working to give back?

M: The proceeds from the clothing and event are split between the two brands, each of us with different but equally important missions. For HoMie, it helps fund our two social impact programs in our Pathway Alliance program, which are an eight-month paid internship and [also] our VIP days, which are free shopping days we run 12 times a year… for young people experiencing homelessness or hardship.

S: All the profits generated from the event and collection support both brands’ core purposes. HoMie’s mission is to provide opportunities for young people experiencing homelessness or hardship, whilst Clothing The Gaps profits support the work of the Clothing The Gaps Foundation in adding years to Aboriginal people’s lives. For us at Clothing The Gaps, as an Aboriginal social enterprise, elevating and celebrating Mob is always at the forefront.

Aesthetically, how did you come up with the tee designs?

M: We always knew we wanted to forge the existing tees together, the coming together of the two brands is super special and important and we wanted the tees to reflect that.

The clever Reborn team puzzled pieces together alongside guidance from CTG and came up with nine pairs of tees that are so unique! It was also important to both of us to utilise existing stock rather than use more resources and create something new… we have some iconic existing designs that needed a refurb.

S: We have amazing creative teams at both HoMie and Clothing The Gaps who worked tirelessly together behind the scenes, getting to know each other and our individual senses of style before some fun samples were created…

There were lots of crazy catchups, tons of group chats and FaceTimes before landing on the messaging and graphics. We’re all super stoked with the designs, and most importantly what these limited-edition tees represent.

What does the upcycling process look like for this collab?

M: The Reborn team, in consultation with CTG, came up with ideas and brought the product to life in the HoMie warehouse in Collingwood. Once we found samples that we all liked, we then picked 500 tees of each brand in the same sizing and took it to CTG manufacturer in Thomastown… [they used] a laser cutter to make the process a bit quicker and easier. Each tee was then screen printed with our Together on Purpose slogan for the collab, and a patch that has both logos was sewn on.

S: The new Together On Purpose collection is made from tees that weren’t selling through as quickly as we would have liked… we gave these tees a new lease on life! Upcycling, for both brands, looks like slicing up some old fave tees and sewing them back together in new and interesting ways.

Mix and matching, sewing and screenprinting our Together On Purpose tees involved a lot of handling and care. We underestimated how much work goes into the upcycling process, but it’s so worth it… [and] we’re so pleased we could keep this local to keep our impact down. It also means that we get to work super closely with our suppliers in this process and now they’re excited to see our designs repurposed and reimagined.

Shop the ‘Together on Purpose’ collaboration here.