Yindi Artz & XcessFIT - South Australia

YINDI ARTZ Yindi Artz is a 100% Aboriginal owned business, operated by proud Wiradjuri woman De Greer-Yindimincarlie. Yindi Artz produces Authentic Aboriginal Creations, specialising in graphic design, Reconciliation Action Plans artworks and layout, textile design, film editing, music composition, bicycle frame customisation, hand made jewellery and Aboriginal gifts and resources. De is an award-winning artist, winning 2008 South East QLD NAIDOC award - distinguished services in the Visual Arts Industry, and the 2013 National Deadly award in the Professional Deadly Dressed category, for a collaborative piece the ‘Yindi’ dress, which graced her textile design. Also in 2011 and 2013 De was nominated for a Deadly award for Artist of the Year. For me it’s the only thing that made sense. After completing a degree at University, and running a music business beforehand, going back into the arts was just a natural path that I followed. Creating for me is a compulsion and need, it is how I make sense of things, the world, my life and everything around it. Being a full-time artist at times doesn’t pay the bills, but the alternative would absolutely destroy my soul.

XcessFIT XcessFIT is an Australian brand, that responds to the frustrations voiced of plus size people around the world, and an evidenced global need for awesome plus size activewear that fits big bodies, is good quality, beautiful, functional and affordable. XcessFIT is here to pick you up when others put you down, with plus size activewear for women and men that gives you the flexibility to wear it anywhere, your way. As a plus size person, finding activewear that fits well, looks awesome and feels good is a challenge. And then comes the constant pressure and broken record of hearing society telling you need to lose weight. You’re over it, and we get it! XcessFIT is here to break that mould and to celebrate you.XcessFIT is where Art, Fashion and Fabric collide, utilising printing techniques that allow for bright, photographic quailty, vivid prints. We design and produce exceptional quality activewear that is as bold as it is beautiful, that will serve you and your lifestyle every day. Being activewear, our garments are made from premium quality lightweight sports materials, that have sweat wicking properties to keep you dry, zoned ventilation panels to keep you cool, and are designed with ergonomic and anti-chaffing seam definition to keep you comfortable. All our garments are tested by real people in real situations for size, fit, comfort, wear, wash, colour fastness and sweat before any range is manufactured.

In 2012, as a woman in my early forties, who weighed about 165kg at my heaviest, and nearly being wiped out by a bus on the streets of Paris, I realised that something had to change. Over the next 12 months I worked hard on myself, both internally and externally to change my life, to give me the longevity I want and need to be able to achieve everything I want to do. It was from this very introspective time, and a coffee with a friend in a beautiful little cafe called ‘Sweethearts’ in a tiny little place in Queensland called Eudlo, that XcessFIT was born. I remember so well what it was like to be a plus size person, with no choice in regards to purchasing activewear, so I made a commitment to change that. I am hopeful that XcessFIT can change that globally, and help create a world with more acceptance of people as magnificent and worthy human beings, regardless of size. I also know what it is like to constantly be told, as a plus size person, that you have to lose weight. I got so sick of that broken record. So tired of the constant badgering from the world to conform, so that I could ‘fit' in. I vowed that XcessFIT will never do that, and to acknowledge that plus size people – like everyone else – should have the ability to buy and wear great looking and feeling activewear, which is affordable, with no strings attached, and do whatever it is they do anywhere, their way.

Check out both of De's brands below!