"We Lost Our Shop. Now We're Fighting to Get It Back." — Jarrah & Grace on the Colourful Blouses That Built Their Boutique
Jarrah and Grace have been best friends for more than 40 years — and every bold, colourful pattern in their lightweight blouses has been hand screen-printed to their own designs since the shop's earliest days. A few years ago they lost the shop. Now they're fighting to reopen it, and every blouse sold helps get their doors open again.
Chapel Street, Melbourne. The studio smells of pigment ink and warm cotton fresh off the drying rack. A row of hand-cut screens hangs above the workbench, worn soft at the edges from decades of use. Colour blooms through the mesh onto plain cotton, one pull at a time.
In a few hours, it'll be a Jarrah & Grace blouse. "You never quite know how the colour's going to sit until it does," Grace says. "That's the part I never got tired of."
How the Prints Began
Long before they opened the shop, Jarrah and Grace found a small screen-printing studio in Fitzroy and taught themselves the whole process — hand-cutting screens, mixing pigment, pulling colour through mesh one layer at a time. "We had no idea it would still be going more than 40 years later," Jarrah laughs.
More Than 40 Years of Colour
We estimate we've hand screen-printed somewhere close to 80 original colourways, each one mixed and pulled in small batches before moving on to the next. No digital printers, no repeat orders from a file — every pattern started as hand-cut screens and hand-mixed pigment, layer by layer.
The Colourful Lightweight Shirts — the collection you're looking at now — are what we'd call our prettiest run: watercolour florals, poppies and wildflowers in warm coral, blush and berry, on breathable cotton and linen blends. A little over thirty designs remain from the last run we ever printed.
What Makes This Collection So Special
- Hand screen-printed, not digitally printed: Every pattern is pulled by hand through a silk screen, one colour layer at a time — no two runs ever came out quite identical.
- Hand-mixed pigment inks: Every colour is mixed by hand in small batches, so shades carry small, honest variations from piece to piece.
- Lightweight cotton and linen blends: Built to breathe through warm Australian summers — no clinging, no overheating.
- Relaxed, considered fit: Designed to move easily and flatter real bodies, not runway samples.
- One of the last true hand-printed runs left at Jarrah & Grace: Once these designs are gone, there won't be a reprint. We won't be printing more.
★★★★★Join 1,800+ women across Australia who've already brought one of these prints home
Customers Who've Kept Theirs for Years
Jarrah and Grace still have a small box of cards and photos — handwritten notes customers sent in over the years about a blouse they bought. "People sent pictures from garden parties, from long lunches, from a holiday on the coast years later," Jarrah says, holding up a card postmarked 2018 from a customer in Torquay.
That kind of longevity isn't an accident. A mass-market print takes minutes to generate digitally. Ours take several days — from first hand-cut screen to finished, cured fabric, mixing pigment to get a shade just right, then curing each print so the colour holds through years of washing. "That's not a flaw," Grace says. "That's proof it was pulled by hand, not printed by machine."
The Shop That's Fighting
After more than forty years on Chapel Street, the lease went — and with it, the shop. "We never thought we'd be the ones putting the sign in the window," Jarrah says quietly. Everything still on the racks that day, including a little over thirty of these colourways, went straight into storage.
"We're not letting these go because we want to," Grace says. "Forty-odd years ago we opened our doors with nothing but a love for beautiful clothes and the women who wear them, and that dream lasted a lifetime." Every blouse that leaves storage now brings them one step closer to opening a door of their own again.
What Customers Are Saying
"I didn't expect a blouse to make me a little emotional, but knowing it's one of the last hand-printed ones the shop will ever make — it just feels different to put on."
Helen Vickers, 61 — Fremantle, WA"Wore mine to a long lunch and had four separate people ask where it was from. The colour is nothing like the flat prints I usually find."
Pauline Ostrowski, 57 — Newcastle, NSW"Bought it for myself after retiring. Silly to say a blouse makes a Tuesday feel like an occasion, but here we are."
Diane Boothe, 64 — Hobart, TAS
Where to Find This Collection
The Colourful Lightweight Shirts are only available through Jarrah & Grace's Rescue Sale — Jarrah and Grace look after every online order themselves, while they work to reopen the shop they've run together for more than 40 years. Once what's left is gone, this particular collection won't be printed again.
To be upfront: this isn't the cheapest colourful blouse you'll find online. A digitally printed blouse from a fast-fashion site will always cost less — and if that's genuinely all you're after, that's a perfectly reasonable choice. This one is for people who want something that started as an actual hand-pulled print, small variations and all, and who'd rather their money help fund a shop trying to reopen. If that's not you, no hard feelings.
Jarrah & Grace's Personal Guarantee
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee. "We only want these going to women who'll actually wear them," Jarrah says. Try it for 30 days — if it's not right, send it back for a full refund, no questions asked.
60% Off — while the Rescue Sale runs
We've never liked discounting the prints — it always felt like it cheapened the work. But with the shop still closed, every blouse still in storage is now $62.99, down from $157.99 — and every order helps fund getting our doors open again.
Save 60% off · Free shipping today only · Limited prints left
The Internet Loves These Prints
"Found out Jarrah and Grace are fighting to reopen and ordered two on the spot. You can just tell from the photos that little print studio was part of the shop's heart for a long time."
Marion Kelleher, 63 — Melbourne, VIC"My sister saw mine on a video call and ordered hers within the hour. Now I understand why."
Yvonne Castellano, 59 — Adelaide, SA"It felt good buying from a shop that's fighting to reopen, knowing this purchase is actually part of getting them there."
Roslyn Faber, 60 — Sydney, NSWEvery Blouse Sold Gets Them Closer
Jarrah and Grace aren't guaranteeing a next print run — the Rescue Sale is what funds the next step toward reopening, not the other way around. "Once these prints are gone, we won't be printing more," Jarrah says quietly. Between the discount and the growing interest, what remains of the Colourful Lightweight Shirts is expected to sell out well before the doors open again.
Closing Thought
It's the kind of blouse you don't just hang at the back of the wardrobe. Every one carries a bit of a Fitzroy print studio, a bit of a market stall in the early '80s, and more than 40 years of friendship between two best friends who built something together, lost it, and are fighting — one print at a time — to get it back.
— Naomi Carrick, for Print Room Journal 🎨