Tobia Beckley
Tobia Beckley is the founder, designer and maker at clothing label, DISARM.
The journey of Tobi’s creative practice began with her honours degree in Design (Fashion) at Melbourne’s RMIT University. During Tobi’s degree the opportunity to collaborate in studio with architecture and environmental science students set her on a path of sustainability and a deep appreciation for the positive impact of truly intelligent design on an individual as well as the community at large. This path was mapped onto a recurring theme in both her artwork and clothing design, her love of grids and puzzles.
A decade after graduating, Tobi has synthesised her practice into DISARM, a project based label. The parameters for he DISARM projects involve; reuse of pre-existing but discarded materials, evolving these materials into a practical, desirable and long lasting object/garment, creating unique singular items whilst establishing a system so as to produce multiple unique but similar things.
Tobi maintains a focus on (and preference for) natural fibres and ‘slow’ processes, honouring time tested craft techniques, in particular Japanese resist dyeing and hand sewing techniques.
Her current success is the ‘Dream Dress’, which involves deconstructing two men’s shirts and reconstructing them into a dress – each dress varies in size and shape depending on the the initial components as opposed to being made in ‘standard’ sizing and so are best tried on in store.
Images courtesy of Tobia Beckley. image 1 by Liz Looker, listing image and images 2-7 by Susie Blatchford