When artist and designer Stavroula Adameitis was travelling around the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, she came across an old motel in a tiny outback town and knew it was a thing of retro beauty. The motel “behind a dodgy old pub with West End on tap and honey carrots [on the menu]” became the inspiration for her vibrant, unapologetically kitsch cushion cover Outback Motel – one of six designs in the first homewares collection by Frida Las Vegas.
Adameitis launched Frida Las Vegas in 2013 with a range of statement earrings featuring instantly recognisable pop culture references and Aussie road signs. She branched out to include humorous “glamour sacks”, kaftans and maxi dresses featuring nostalgic prints of Golden Gaytimes, Chiko Rolls, Agro and Kath & Kim quotes (noice). Now there are scarves, artworks, hats, swimwear and six new cushion covers to add to the cart when you’re in need of zhooshing up your bland Ikea couch.
“I wanted to bring colour, positivity and a glamorous sense of vintage nostalgia into people’s homes,” says Adameitis. “My artworks adapted perfectly to the cushion cover format, which is another form of blank canvas to experiment with. Cushion covers are a really simple and effective way to instantly inject pizzazz – and I’m all about that pizzazz.”
There’s a distinctive pop-art colour palette across the range – Smoke and Mirrors has a super saturated pink and contrasting yellow; North Bondi Apartment Building is turquoise with white-and-black silhouette of a perched ibis on a palm tree; and Revlon Orchid Beach has hot-pink lips on a lime-green background. Each cover is $55, made in Sydney, and you can find suitable cover inserts for them at stores like Spotlight, Ikea and Kmart.
“All my designs start as digital illustrations based on photographs of places, signs and symbols that catch my eye,” she says. “I work closely with a small group of printers and makers in Sydney’s inner west to bring my fashion and homewares to life. There’s a five-kilometre radius where all Frida Las Vegas pieces are conceived, illustrated, printed, cut, produced and shipped.”
All Frida Las Vegas items can be shipped nationally via Australia Post for $16 per item.
