St Patrick's School Taupō student Lucy Stapleton donates unworn catwalk creation to school

St Patrick's Catholic School year 8 student Lucy Stapleton has donated to the school her never-been-worn 2020 entry for the Creative Catwalk Lake Taupō Hospice. Photo / Rachel Canning

A young artist who made an incredible cork outfit for a twice-cancelled event has now outgrown her creation.

In 2019, Lucy Stapleton, then aged 9, came second in her age group with her coffee capsule outfit made for the Lake Taupō Hospice fundraiser Creative Catwalk.

Collecting the coffee capsules turned out to be time-consuming, and so straight after the 2019 event, the St Patrick's School Taupō student set about sourcing used wine corks in the lead-up to making her 2020 Creative Catwalk entry.

Several cafes were approached and within a few months, she had the hundreds of corks required. Lucy made her outfit, with a little bit of help from her mum Deborah Stapleton. However, the Covid-19 pandemic meant Lake Taupō Hospice had to cancel the 2020 and 2021 Creative Catwalk events. Hospice missed out on much-needed fundraising opportunities, and Lucy grew so tall her 12-year-old self could no longer fit into her cork creation.

Lucy, 12, now a Year 8 student, knows about fundraising and is the treasurer for the Young Vinnies at school. Recently the Young Vinnies held a mufti day and raised $300 to support victims of the war in Ukraine.

In 2019, then 9-year-old Lucy Stapleton made this wearable artwork from coffee capsules for Creative Catwalk Lake Taupō Hospice and came second in her age category. Photo / Supplied

She decided to donate her cork costume to her school and her marvellous artwork currently stands in the entry foyer.

Teacher Ling Clarke says Lucy's donation has inspired the school to hold their own wearable art event in term three and has Lucy lined up as a student judge. Students can create a head garment during class time and can also enter a costume they make in their own time.

Ling says the brief for the wearable art is that it must reflect one of the school's values: faith in action, confident, connected, compassionate, curious.

Lucy says she is not sure if she will enter this year's Lake Taupō Creative Catwalk event as she says it takes quite a lot of time to make a piece of wearable art.

St Patrick's Catholic School year 8 student Lucy Stapleton has donated to the school her never-been-worn 2020 entry for the Creative Catwalk Lake Taupō Hospice. Photo / Rachel Canning