“The women wearing this print should feel confident, powerful and free, but also calm - because the colours and prints represent calm as well.” Noor, Community Print Designer

Spring has arrived, and so has Garden Mosaic, our Spring Collection, featuring two new community prints, Verdant & Pardis. 

The Social Outfit’s textile prints celebrate the artistic expression of refugee and migrant women and share their stories through fashion. 

Our Community Print Program is a collaborative design project where refugee and migrant women create original artworks that are developed into textile prints and garments. These prints are a celebration of their creativity, diversity and connection, giving them voice and visibility in the Australian fashion industry. 

As one print participant beautifully puts it, "these prints carry our story, now you get to add your own, every time you wear them."

This year, we invited some of our Retail Training Program alumni back to The Social Outfit to contribute to our 2026 community prints. Together, the women created our Pardis, Verdant and Cosmic Bloom prints. 

Here, we're telling the story behind two of them, Pardis and Verdant, and the women whose hands shaped them.

A day at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney 

The project began with a reunion. Eight women, all alumni of The Social Outfit's training programs, met at a gallery near Central Station before travelling together to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. 

Guided through the gardens, the women spent the day exploring the gardens, recognising the uniqueness, colour, scent and texture of flowers and plants, capturing them on film.

"I saw many different kinds of flowers in the garden," says Farukh, one of the women behind this year's prints. "Each one was kept in the environment that was best for it. In the right environment, they grow beautifully, showing their colours and lovely scents. The gardens taught me something simple: just like flowers, we also grow and thrive when we're in the right environment, where we truly belong."

Turning a day in the garden into a print

Back at our store, the real experimenting began. Over two creative workshops, facilitated by Jo and Sonya, the women cut and pieced together the photographs they'd taken, then picked up brushes and began to paint - for some women the first time painting in years, for others, their first time ever. There was a colour palette to follow but beyond that, the brief was simple: let the gardens guide you and don’t be afraid to experiment. 

Chatting to Farukh, she shares "it was my first time painting - at first I was a bit lost. I didn't know what I should do. Then Jo and Sonya told me, 'you're free to do whatever you can do.' That gave me the freedom to just do it… in the end, I found out that when you're free, you can do your best."

Image: Farukh painting during one of the workshops.

Noor, another member of the group, felt the same nerves. "I was a bit too scared to put a lot of colour on the paper, or do something wrong," she says. "But I realised there's no such thing as right or wrong, because you're creating something unique… that's what was so special about it."

All of the flowers, motifs and elements painted by the women were collated and shared with a textile print designer, who worked with layers and scale to include all seven women’s art into repeating patterns, and the wearable prints Pardis and Verdant.

Weeks later, the women saw their prints for the first time. Farukh shares she feels proud of the project and “everyone’s imagination has come together and made one thing. I think it's a unity, and that's the main point of this project.” 

The Pardis print carries bold, painterly floral motifs in soft blues, pinks and greens, painted by the seven refugee and migrant women involved in the creation of the artwork, while Verdant takes on a softer, quieter movement in deeper green tones, painted by one of the alumni. 

Images: Ruby’s original artwork visible on a Pardis garment. 

Image: The women involved in the 2026 Community Print Project painting. 

Garden Mosaic brought to life in the workroom

 

Images: Fatima and Lina in the workroom.

Once the silk fabric arrived at our Marrickville workroom, the workroom began creating the pieces. Eight refugee and migrant women in our production team transformed the fabrics into the beautiful silk garments that make up the Garden Mosaic collection. Using skills developed in our workroom, and expertly handling the luxurious silk satin fabric, the team manages the patternmaking, grading, cutting, sewing and finishing of each piece. Each garment is made with care, demonstrating their pride and confidence.

Garden Mosaic: the campaign photoshoot 

Image: Farukh, Hajar, Noor and Yashna.

We invited the cohort back once again for the collection photoshoot to see their prints modelled and styled, making sure they were part of the process from the first brushstroke to the finished garment. Farukh, Hajar, Noor and Hajar attended, and reflected on seeing their artwork now woven through a finished collection. They spoke of the pride of watching something they created become part of a larger story.

The meaning of the prints

Pardis: a sanctuary where nature flourishes

Pardis takes its name from the ancient Persian word for a walled garden, a sanctuary where nature flourishes. For the seven women from our community behind the print design, Faridah, Farukh, Hajar, Marina, Noor, Ruby and Yashna, each contributed flowers and motifs from their own hand, expressing, in their own way, what it means to grow and thrive somewhere you belong.

Verdant: layered green of new growth 

Where Pardis is layered and detailed, Verdant is quieter. Painted by one of our program alumni and inspired by the same day at the gardens, this calming, textured print speaks to the deep green of new growth, a reminder that stillness can hold its own kind of strength.

More than a print

These two prints truly speak to style with substance, and tell this year’s community print story: growing together.

Designed and made ethically in Sydney, the Garden Mosaic collection reflects The Social Outfit's commitment to contemporary design, considered fabrics, and storytelling with substance.