WHEN Creedence Clearwater Revival sang Who’ll Stop the Rain back in 1970 they couldn’t have known that Alicia Mora-Hyde was about to start a long association doing just that – stopping the rain.
Alicia is believed to be Australia’s last bespoke umbrella maker.
“Mora-Igra umbrellas are pieces of art,” she said.
“The people who buy my umbrellas appreciate beauty. They want a piece of art that’s useful.
“If people want an umbrella only for the rain, let them buy a Chinese cheapie. It won’t last and it won’t look pretty, but it might keep them dry for a little while!”
For the past 13 years, Alicia, 74, has created and crafted thousands of fine umbrellas from a warehouse unit at Brendale on the northern outskirts of Brisbane.
Her workplace is a kaleidoscope of organised muddle, umbrellas hanging from walls, stuffed in containers and packed in boxes haphazardly piled on tables amid the machines, fabric swatches and clutches of imported European handles.
There are traditional black umbrellas for “gents”, gigantic summer beach brollies and frivolous flouncy parasols.
Polka dots, plaids, florals, stripes and bright bold single-coloured silks vie for attention.
Each of Alicia’s handmade umbrellas is one-of-a-kind, crafted from “only the finest materials” – European silk, cotton and cane – using a carefully guarded pattern.
“They are all favourites; it’s like children. A mother cannot have a favourite child: they are all loved for themselves,” she said.
Alicia arrived in Australia from Chile at the age of 17. She was introduced to umbrella-making back in the early 1970s in Sydney, hired as a nanny for two little boys, the sons of a Polish migrant businessman, Michael Igra.
Igra Umbrellas began in 1949 when a well-turned-out woman wasn’t properly dressed without her gloves, her hat and a brolly. “As the boys grew up and needed me less, Igra invited me to the factory to watch and learn,” Alicia said.
“I must have been born to make them. It seemed so natural to me, knowing what looks good, what goes with what, and in time I learned every aspect of their manufacture.”
Alicia went on to become the factory floor manager, remaining in the family’s employment for 29 years until Michael Igra’s death in 2000.
She then decided to keep making the brollies and parasols, despite the saturation of cheap Asian fold-up umbrellas and changing fashion tastes. “It surprises and saddens me to see umbrellas thought of for rainy days only.
“We live in a country of sunshine. They’re a beautiful portable sunshade too.”
Mora-Igra Umbrellas, (07) 3881-0027, www.moraigraumbrellas.com.au
