This article first appeared at www.15secs.com

On a cold and wet April night, arty fashionistas gathered at Lamington Drive, (89 George Street, Richmond) a fabulous little gallery space where the clever, weather predicting Michi Girl had chosen to unveil her collection of canvas tote bags from the LMFF fashion and art initiative. You would think she might have some pull over the weather, but alas, the guys and girls who came to the reveal rugged up in their winter best and enjoyed their champers in the drizzle.

Michi’s ‘fashion installation’ involved a large (ok, huge) piece of white canvas attached to a wall, while her fashionable friends painted it over the course of the LMFF as part of the culture program. Michi’s nearest and dearest include Kat Macleod (also famous for all the wonderful Michi Girl illustrations), Tin&Ed, Rik Lee, Beck Wheeler, Andrea Innocent, Oslo Davis, Good Wives & Warriors and Rebecca Wetzler.

And now, one month later, thirty-six perfectly unique and distinctive designer canvas bags are on show, yours for the bargain price of $198 – and all proceeds going to Oxfam. Each bag is numbered, and has a quirky coloured button system to indicate which designers artwork appears on your one of a kind bag.  

So use it for your shoes, or hang it on the wall – the exhibition last night opened my eyes to some new designers, a new way to display arm candy and some fantastic reasons to support a great charity.

To purchase one of the bags not snapped up last night, or to watch culture in action, visit http://michigirl.tumblr.com/