Alice Patrick is not your average Australian designer.
In the mid 1990s, when many of the country's most prolific designers were still in fashion school, Patrick was forced to flee Rwanda after losing her family, friends and neighbours in the genocide.
Thirteen years on from the tragic event – and now comfortably settled in Australia – Patrick hopes to pay homage to her dearly departed relatives.
"My grandmother was a seamstress at the local market and by the age of ten, she taught me how to make my own clothes. She was so good - I can look at something now and know how to make it, I don't need a patternmaker."
Patrick, who is currently launching her Mwasi Kitoko womenswear label across Australia, Los Angeles and New York, still sources many of her prints from South Africa, including Rwanda, the Congo and Uganda.
"Two years ago, I travelled to Africa and started buying fabrics there because they are so strong and tough and bright. Everyone kept telling me it was too dangerous to go into the Congo but I still went – the prints there are different from what we have here and in Europe, they are not something common."
Describing her aesthetic as "Africa meets the West", Patrick's first collection is comprised of casual and cocktail dresses, pants, skirts and tops in chiffons, lace, cotton, nylon mesh, tulle and jersey fabrications.
Key highlights include a bright yellow, orange and green mini dress in a copyrighted African print and a black, hand-beaded cocktail dress. Ruffles, butterfly sleeves, waterfall necks, balloon cuts and open backs litter the collection, which is priced from $60 to $280.
Patrick said the inspiration for her debut line – which in entirely manufactured in Sydney - was close to home.
"Mwasi Kitoko means beautiful girl in Rwandan. It's something I thought about a lot when I designed my first range – making that little extra something for the beautiful girl."
Targeting her range exclusively at independent boutiques both here and abroad, Patrick has no plans for establishing a department store presence. The spring/summer collection is expected to hit Australian stores this October.