From Moree to New York City, this September proud Gomeroi woman Colleen Tighe-Johnson and a team of deadly Aboriginal women are set to take the fashion world by storm, with the label Buluuy Mirri (Black Star) hitting the runway of one of fashion's biggest events.

Born and raised in Moree, a small town in New South Wales, Ms Tighe-Johnson said fashion has been in her blood for a long time.

"My inspiration comes from my grandmother, she was a high profiled community person, she taught ballroom dancing and was the head nurse at the Moree segregated section of the Moree District Hospital, called the McMasters ward," she said.

Ms Tighe-Johnson said her grandmother always had a passion for dancing and taught right up until she the day she passed away.

Along with teaching dancing, she also made the debutantes gowns.

"I used to watch her on an old sewing machine, she never used patterns or anything she just made ballgowns for the debs, so that's where the inspiration and the passion comes from," she said.

When Ms Tighe-Johnson spoke of her mother and grandmother, the love in her voice was clear.

"My mum… it's been five years since she's been gone this year. And my grandma, she passed away when I was ten...," she said.

"I guess how I look at it, as I'm doing things that they didn't have the chance to do, and I look at it this way… I wasn't even a statistic when I was born and here I am six decades later on the biggest fashion event in the world."

Referring to her ancestors Ms Tighe-Johnson spoke with compassion.

"I think they'll all be walking with me," she said.

Ms Tighe-Johnson is no stranger to success, having exhibited designs in Melbourne, New Zealand, Canada and New York Fashion Week in spring and fall 2017, the Cannes Film Festival and Paris Fashion Week.

But how did this all happen for a young girl that grew up in the little town of Moree, New South Wales?

Ms Tighe-Johnson said she was working as a hairdresser in Sydney's Northern Beaches for several years, when shockingly she had a stroke at the young age of 35, prompting her to return closer to family.

"I moved home to Moree from Sydney for support with my family," she said.

"I decided while I was there to learn from this stroke that I had and decided to put together a confidence and self-esteem program with young people."

Once participants of the program graduated, she said "Instead of doing the normal gradational dinner, we did a fashion show."

Following in her grandmothers' footsteps Ms Tighe-Johnson designed gowns for the girls.

Ms Tighe-Johnson eventually moved to Tamworth and commenced a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment where she used her Moree fashion show as a major assessment.

She was then prompted by a fellow student to apply for the Deadly Dress Award.

"I handed a piece in and got into the final six and just from there, things progressed into where I am now," she said.

After working with colours as a hairdresser, Ms Tighe-Johnson believes this knowledge helped her to understand colour pallets.

"Most of my colours and my colour pallet comes from the season," she said.

"I follow my cultural flora and fauna and it's about my surroundings and the colours that are in season.

"I never use a colour pallet that is the norm through the fashion world.

"They pre-plan for so many years ahead, but mine is always about my surroundings because our colours are with our eco system, so it changes seasonally."

For someone who has appeared on multiple world stages, Ms Tighe-Johnson said a personal highlight was being invited to close the show at Melbourne City Fashion Week.

"To be recognised in my own country on that level and that scale, I can't get any higher than that," she said.

"When I first began it was all about sharing the stories and taking it to the world, to show them all the positive side of our cultural heritage and sharing our stories on high grade textiles and fabrics and now…

"I think Melbourne took me to another level."

Ms Tighe-Johnson, who will head to New York in September to launch "Miyay miyaay" Gomeroi for Seven Sisters, will be followed by a team of young Aboriginal women who are also heading to New York Fashion Week to pursue their own growth within the industry.

When asked the question what is unique about about Buluuy Mirri she said

"I come from the oldest living people in the world and I think the uniqueness of it is that I share the stories of my ancestors that have been passed down and nobody else has got that," she said.

"For me to be able to share those stories on high grade textiles and fabrics that's something that really needs to be shown to the world, our story telling and how we have survived.

"I think people always hear the negative side of us, but they never hear the positive side so that's a real passion of mine and that's the uniqueness of Buluuy Mirri.

"All the fabrics are natural and sustainable, what I'm heading toward is mainly sustainable fabrics so it doesn't go into landfill and it goes back into earth everything about Buluuy Mirri is about cultural heritage."

Despite the positive news and opportunity that this presents to the team of Aboriginal women attending and community members following the journey, the team have not received a cent of funding.

"We applied for five grants, and we didn't get any! So, we are now raising money through a GoFundMe," Ms Tighe-Johnson said.

"I'm really lucky to have a team of young people around me like Sarah and Terry Smith, she's been with me for about six years she's a videographer and photographer and Leonie Knight, she's a film producer, they're putting together a short film on me. So that's why they are travelling.

"There's thousands of people that apply and get nominated and I pretty proud to say I'm one of the 25 designers."

New York Fashion Week 2023 runs from 7 September to 13 September.