AS part of Narrm Football Club’s celebrations of Sir Doug Nicholls Round, players arrived at the MCG dressed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fashion designers ahead of today’s clash with Hawthorn.
Continuing the club’s now infamous casual clothes entrances this season, the players collaborated with five First Nations designers, including Tahnee Edwards (Gammin Threads), Clinton Hayden, Meg Paine, Matty Chilly and KingKing Creative.
Edwards, Hayden, Paine and Chilly all recently participated in Koorie Heritage Trust’s 2026 Blak Design program. The program, an Australian first, fosters First Peoples’ cultural innovation within Victoria’s design sector, providing a platform for sustainable Indigenous design practices.
Narrm Football Club would like to thank all designers, and the Koorie Heritage Trust, for their collaboration in this initiative.
Please find below:
Players dressed by each designer:
KingKing Creative
Disco Turner
Blake Howes
Paddy Cross
Gammin Threads
Jacob Van Rooyen
Jake Lever
Tom Sparrow
Jack Steele
Trent Rivers
Harry Sharp
Harvey Langford
Jake Bowey
Max Heath
Harry Petty
Bayley Fritsch
Matthew Jefferson
Clinton Hayden
Max Gawn
Meg Paine
Ed Langdon
Koltyn Tholstrup
Bailey Laurie
Matty Chilly
Kade Chandler
A bio for each designer:
KingKing Creative
Gurindji/Waanyi
KingKing is a Blak owned creative business founded by sisters Sarrita and Tarisse King. The brand celebrates Aboriginal art, culture & storytelling, built on the stories of the sisters’ family and their father’s legacy. They create wearable art and design-led products that carry story from Country to community. The range includes authentic Aboriginal art prints, fashion, jewellery, accessories and homewares, all featuring original artworks by Sarrita and Tarisse. KingKing supports mob made creativity, ethical production and meaningful cultural connection through contemporary First Nations design.
Credit: KingKing Creative website
Gammin Threads/Tahnee Edwards
Yorta Yorta and Taungurung
Gammin threads is Tahnee Edwards’ side hustle and creative outlet from her part-time job at Aboriginal family violence prevention service, Djirra. Gammin threads is a streetwear brand celebrating culture through language, humour, and storytelling. The brand’s values are simple: Representation,Creativity and Blak Joy. The designs reflect lived experiences, shared stories, and the everyday language that connects community. When you choose to buy from Gammin threads, you’re supporting Blak business and self-determination. Tahnee designs everything from her studio in Brunswick East, Naarm.
Credit: Gammin threads website
Clinton Hayden
Wiradjuri
Underlying the central thrust of Clinton Hayden’s creative and academic work is the aspiration to bring many aspects of Wiradjuri Culture into the living present – and into the future. As he says, the objects and garments he has created ask how making can be a form of remembering – and how design can imagine futures that stay connected with Country, Culture and kin.
Mudyi is the Wiradjuri word for “friend”, and the work sits within Clinton’s broader practice around language, relationality, and contemporary Blak design.
Credit: Koorie Heritage Trust, Blak Design – Treading Lightly, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, 2026.
Meg Paine
Kuku Yalanji
Megan Paine is a proud Kuku Yalanji woman and Naarm/Melbourne-based artist whose work explores identity, storytelling, and (dis)connection through contemporary creative practice. Drawing inspiration from lived experience and yearning for connection to the natural world around her through clay, photography and textiles. Her fashion label is under Bana Goods. Bana is a Kuku Yalanji word for 'water', which embodies strong and soft elements, which is a theme that ties her work together.
Matty Chilly
Wiradjuri, Wamba Wamba, Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Waddi Waddi, Barapa Barapa, Gubbi Gubbi, Nari Nari, Yitti Yitti, Latji Latji, Dadi Dadi, and ties to Māori Iwi in Aotearoa New Zealand
Matty’s artistic journey has always been nourished by the people around him. “When I was young and being in a family full of artists, it was hard not to become one,” he says. “Being around Aunties and Uncles with that mindset, I found myself wanting to teach and pass on knowledge. I learnt weaving at a very young age and that was from my parents and my Aunties. With work that has ranged from painting on canvas to weaving to digital artwork, he has over time become very interested in developing his own style with what he describes as “cultural regalia”, using materials such as feathers, raffia, echidna quills, quandong seeds and various natural fibres to make garments, necklaces and bracelets.
Credit: Koorie Heritage Trust, Stitchin’ Stories – Blak and Threadly, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, 2025.
