Finalist Placing for College Designer

Budding fashion designer, Clara Wigmore has made it through as a finalist in the national secondary school creative competition, ‘Brother Design Stars’. The new competition is open to all Year 7-13 students across New Zealand in two categories - fashion and craft. This year’s theme, ‘Use Old, Create New’, challenged students in the fashion category to create a ready-to-wear item or outfit, giving something old or used a new life.

Clara said when she was phoned last week with the announcement that she had been selected as one of six finalists in the Fashion Award category, she was delighted to learn she was in the running for the supreme award. As a finalist, Clara received a Brother NS10 Sewing Machine worth $499, a start-up Fashion Design Kit which included a $100 Spotlight voucher, high quality threads, sketch pad and pencils, sewing patterns, Grace: A Memoir autobiography hardback as well as four fashion DVDs and a one year Cleo magazine subscription. Clara’s design will also feature in the pages of Cleo and on The 4.30pm Show on TV2 for the People’s Choice Awards. The supreme winners of each category will be announced on the 6th of October.

Clara’s recycled garment entry expressed her individual fashion style with her ‘ice dyed’ dress, using a bed sheet. Using this technique, Clara experimented with sprinkling dye powder on to ice cubes which were on top of the bed sheet. The ice acted as a resist and the colour melted down over the fabric creating a watery, patterned stain effect.

The Year 13 student is familiar with success as a designer, and in 2011 was the overall winner of the Saint Kentigern Middle School’s Wearable Arts Show. She said she has been entering competitions since Year 10 and that she knew her calling lay in the fashion industry as early as Year 7.

She said she enjoys creating designs that are ‘classic, but have their own unique twist, something that hasn’t been seen before, yet not too different.’ She said the dress she entered into Brother Design Stars has North American smocking across the bodice that gives it a woven effect, and the draping on the midi-length skirt makes it look like a wrap.

A keen competition entrant, this year Clara has put forward her creations into four different competitions. She has called this collection of garments along with other examples of her work, ‘Citrus’, and hopes to have a runway exhibition where these are modelled at school at the end of the year.

After she graduates from the College, Clara plans to study fashion design. Her goal is to work for an established fashion house and get her name well known in the industry before she launches her own label.

To vote for Clara in the 4.30 Show People’s Choice Awards visit
http://the430show.co.nz/?page_id=3967