Ellie with her winning design that impressed Trelise Cooper judges. Photo / Hamilton News
Ellie with her winning design that impressed Trelise Cooper judges. Photo / Hamilton News
Fairfield Intermediate student Ellie Goldfinch has taken out two top prizes at the Brother Design Stars competition in Auckland, winning her age group in the fashion category and also taking out the title of supreme winner.
For winning, 12-year-old Ellie will receive not one, but two Brother sewing machines. Ellie's mother Kirstie said she had no idea where the machines would go as there were already seven sewing machines in the house.
Ellie also appeared on Paul Henry and Good Morning which Ellie described as "cool".
"Paul Henry was really nice, he wasn't scary at all," she said.
Kirstie said what was scary was the drive between the two shows.
"All of us ran to the car and we were running a few red lights to get to the second studio. I think we made it with about 10 seconds to spare," she said.
Fairfield Intermediate is also set to benefit from the win, and will receive a complete classroom kit out worth more than $8000, which will include sewing machines, scanNcut machines, label makers and a multi-function printer.
Prizes also include a professional photo shoot alongside one of New Zealand's top fashion photographers, Stephen Tilley and a tour of the Trelise Cooper designer's workroom.
Ellie with her winning design that impressed Trelise Cooper judges. Photo / Hamilton News
But there was one surprise still in store for Ellie, with a judge from Trelise Cooper announcing they liked the dress so much they would be featuring it in adult sizes in one of their future collections.
"There will be a tag in the back of each dress with Ellie's name on it," Kirstie said.
Ellie said when she found out she was super excited.
"I was happy enough to have won my age category, but to win supreme is something else, considering how good all the other entries were."
The theme was identity, a concept Ellie took literally. Taking an image of her own face, she had a friend convert it to a pop art style before printing and sewing the outline to the front of the dress.
The dress was made from metallic faux leather with organza and chiffon making up the rear of the dress.
Also incorporated into the design were laser-cut details on the back.
