Grace

Grace Marlena

 

Grace Marlena is the pseudonym that Grace Brewin often works under. Having finished her Bachelor of Fashion Design at Whitehouse Institute of Design, Melbourne, Grace is now focusing on working as a freelance costume designer. 

 

Growing up on 110 acres of rainforest on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, Grace was exposed to a wide range of influences from Byron Bay to Brisbane. At school, Grace studied Textiles & Technology from grade 7 through to completion in year 12, with her Major Textiles Project- a costume based on an Arabian Princess. 

 

Once completing her HSC, Grace waited until she was 18 and travelled to Europe. Having a love of ancient history (a subject she studied extensively in high school) Grace travelled again to Rome as well as some of her other favourite cities- Berlin, Dresden and Prague. During her trip through Europe, Grace was approached on her guided tour to design a t-shirt representing the trip. Grace's idea of a prostitute from the Red Light District in Amsterdam smoking, with the smoke swirling around images of architecture, was quickly brushed aside but Grace knew this was not the end of her design career. 

 

Upon returning to Australia, Grace immediately applied to Whitehouse Institute of Design- working on her portfolio for the remainder of the year, living in Byron Bay with her boyfriend who was studying Audio Engineering. Once accepted at Whitehouse, Grace packed all her things, told her boyfriend she was moving to Melbourne and he was welcome to come or stay in Byron Bay. 

 

Together they moved to Melbourne and the next chapter unfolded. Grace juggled a new home, new city and new studies. At first she felt that no one understood her design style and she didn't know if it was the right choice, but by her third year Leanne Whitehouse said of Grace's capsule collection that in 44 years in the industry she had never seen anything like it. 

 

Finally finding her feet, Grace also worked doing costumes on the side including the costumes for a theatre production of "The Lonesome West" and the 2013 and then the 2014 Monster Fest (a horror film festival) promo, which was launched on October 29th. Grace has also worked with film students and established directors, working on costumes for the short film "Baby Did A Bat, Bat Thing" which was shown at the Setting Sun Short Film Festival in Yarraville and is available on the "Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla" DVD and soon-to-be available on "The ABCs of Death 2.5". This was the first time Grace saw her name on the silver screen and she determined that it would not be the last. 

 

In 2015 Grace will be working on her costume design dreams.