Dazzling show from young designers

ON COURSE: Solway College's Year 13 Evie Richardson models her outfit, which received a Merit in the Open Avant Garde.

Months of designwork was showcased on the catwalk at the annual Wairarapa Intercollegiate Fashion Extravaganza last week.

Five secondary schools were involved in the event, which attracted 176 entries.

The top award of the Wairarapa Young Designer Award of Excellence went to a Year 10 designer from Wairarapa College, Maddy Dittmer.

Two Year 13 students, Natasha Wall (St Matthew's) and Susan Colton (Wairarapa College), had multiple entries that featured frequently in the prize list.

Wairarapa College teacher in charge of textile and design Ruth Bucknell said the full-house event was "full of more talent than ever" and the judges, Cameron Sneddon and Paul Edgar Bird, did an amazing job in selecting the winners.

The event gets bigger every year, with award winners receiving over $6000 in prizes.

She said her students felt having a catwalk event to show off their work was a unique experience.

"The designers choose their own models and styling so that the outfits look how they visualised they would be."

She said one girl had told her that entering in a previous year was so scary she never thought she could do it, but now she looked forward to it.

The projects required a design process of developing a brief, finding a client, brainstorming, planning, researching and then coming up with initial designs, said Mrs Bucknell.

The average length of a project is over 30 hours of classroom time and the same in homework, with senior students earning NCEA credits.