The Year 7 and 8 Wearable Arts Show

‘Walk to the beat of the music with your head held high, eyes to the front, heel then toe!’

These were the instructions to our Year 7 and 8 boys and girls from professional ‘people mover’ Kiri Whitford-Joynt from ‘ID with Style.’ Kiri generously gave of her time to prepare our students for this year’s Wearable Arts show. Under her guidance, art stepped out on the catwalk during a spectacular show as Years 7 and 8 confidently ‘strutted their stuff’ in a range of garments they had designed and constructed themselves. With 67 costumes on show, 180 students taking part and 14 prizes up for grabs across 8 sections, the excitement was high in the weeks leading up to the show and ticket sales were brisk!

Now in its second year, the girls were as enthusiastic as ever in their sea of glue and things that glittered. Last year, the boys were a little reticent but this time round it is clear that gender is no barrier to fashion design and there were some equally superb designs and great, cheeky stage presence from the boys!

Work towards this unit had been integrated across the curriculum emanating from a unit on recycling - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Over many weeks, the students had been gathering all manner of ‘useful bits’ that could be given a second life and incorporated in their creations. Judging by some of the creations, there were a great deal of lollies and soda pop consumed in the name of art! The ever useful plastic milk bottle top was used in abundance as resourceful students learned to approach cafes for their recyclables.

The catwalk items were interspersed with colourful dance displays choreographed for Year 7 &8 by our Year 11 Dance students. The combination of the two made this a fantastic show case of student inspired creativity.

One special section this year asked the students to help design a wedding dress for popular Year 7 teacher, Miss Nicole Daniels for her forthcoming wedding. Miss Daniels is outgoing and adventurous but we suspect that she was rather pleased the winning design didn’t include too many plastic milk bottle tops or lolly wrappers! But we do wonder how she’ll feel walking down the aisle as a wedding cake!

The students welcomed five special guests for the evening. Media personality, Wendy Meyer was the continuity announcer setting a relaxed yet professional tone for the performers. The three judges were Ros Craw, Head of Visual Arts at Somerville Intermediate; Ann Skelly from Waiheke Island, a full time artist who has entered eleven of her own garments into the World of Wearable Arts (WOW) show and has been successful with nine of them; Melody Brook, a local artist who has also been a finalist at WOW; and Anne Lohrentz who is a Design and Innovative Pattern Cutting lecturer at AUT whose tertiary students have achieved several accolades in design competitions.

Judging firstly took place at the dress rehearsal where each garment was inspected and each student interviewed but the final judging was done on the night. The judges said they found judging particularly difficult and were pleased to be able to refer to the judging criteria:

- Creativity, zest and innovation
- How well the garment represents the category
- Overall originality
- And finally the presentation and construction of the design.

In their concluding comments the judges said they were blown away by the depth of creativity, innovation and talent. Whilst selecting the winners in each category was difficult, they were unanimous in their choice of ‘The Queen of Milk’ by Amy Savoury, Bianca Connell as the Supreme Winner. This stunning outfit incorporated 2000 milk bottle tops. The girls began collecting the tops from cafes in January and started the outfit in April in anticipation of the August show.

This was a superb evening greatly enjoyed by a huge audience. In the words of Head of Middle School, Mr Duncan McQueen, as he summed up the evening, ‘WOW!’

A thank you to:

Katherine Chang from Year 10 for the logo design and Rebecca Funnel Year 9 for the ticket design and PowerPoint for the evening. Our thanks go to organiser, Mrs Leisha Slade along with the Year 7 and 8 staff; dance costume designers, Mrs Rebecca O’Neil and Julie Pearson; dance teacher, Miss Clare Jennings along with the Year 11 choreographers; and Technician, Mr Glen Mortensen and his team for sound and lighting. We also thank photographer, Cate Rainbow for her services.

Our thanks to the following for donating to the event:

- Ann Skelly for her offering a day on Waiheke at her workshop for the supreme winner.
- Wendy and Daniel Coleman (an Old Collegian) whose company, White Villa donated the prize for the most promising design and providing discount vouchers for each ticket purchase.
- The College Parents and Friends Association.

Winners:

Overall Winner Supreme Award: Queen of Milk (Amy Savoury, Bianca Connell)

White Villa Most Promising Design: Queen of Paradise (Ada Chan)

A Man’s World: Mr Roboto (Nico Dudek, Connor McKenzie and Campbell Tonkin)

Kiwiana and Pasifika: The Native Tui (Jessica Collinson)

Mary Poppins: Candy Cat (Hannah storer, Jessica Bird)

Illumination and Illusion: Flower Power (Kate Armstrong)

Get into Pink: Fusilli Vogue (Milly Heimsath)

Miss Daniel's Wedding Dress: Slice of Heaven (Alex Hynds, Alice Donald, Felicity Williams)

Pre-loved Avant Garde: Queen of Milk (Amy Savoury, Bianca Connell)

Magic and love of Books: Rise of the Phoenix (Holly Dashford)

Highly commended:

Simply Chess (Kate Armstrong)

Sugar Rush (Emma King, Sarah Cappel, Gemma Moore

Recyclable Yeti (Hugo Dorresteyn, Peter Yang)

Armageddon (Hollie Riddell)

Click here to view the highlights video

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