Teen draws inspiration from medical condition for fashion line

The fashion collection made its debut on the runway on Wednesday evening. Photo / iStock

An AUT student has used her experience of being diagnosed with a life-long medical condition as a teen to inspire her final year fashion collection which made its debut on the runway on Wednesday evening.

At 16, Monique Burgess she suffered a stroke, had chronic headaches was vomiting and for a while struggled to speak or form a sentence. She was later diagnosed with having cavernous malformations and needed brain surgery to remove a golf ball-sized tumour.

Today the 20-year-old continued to struggle with serious fatigue and headaches as a result of the condition that creates tumour-like malformations in her brain's blood vessels.

Despite this she finished her high-school studies on time with her peers at St Cuthbert's College before going onto study fashion at AUT.

Her graduating collection is a reflection of her teenage years and the "loss of innocence" that she associated with becoming sick.

"The concept was about growing up living with this condition and not being able to go out and have a typical teenage life," she said. "It does kind of suck when everyone is going out, but I can't because I'm too tired or have a headache."

Her tutor, and AUT Head of Fashion, Andreas Mikellis said her collection had a real "punky" and playful edge.

"Her work is very much about youthful rebellion, it's about her expressing her ideas of colour, proportion and play."

He added Miss Burgess was not just someone who scraped through university despite her medical condition.

"There were days where she may not have been feeling as well, but she didn't let it stop her. It was non-negotiable," he said. "But she's also a really strong fashion designer. She really is so talented."

Miss Burgess planned to do her Honours year at AUT in the new year with the aim of one-day having her own fashion label.