Queen Margaret College Take on WOW

16 September, 2013

QMC Take on WOW

Long Horn Beetle, Kowhai Flower, Springtime, Plastic Fantastic, Petal Bloom and Bumble Bee are the names of garments created by Queen Margaret College students to be displayed in shop windows as part of the 2013 World of WearableArt®. From 26 September - 6 October over 64 Wellington City shop windows will be dressed up to enhance the WOW experience beyond the show.

For Queen Margaret College students this task is part of their NCEA Materials Technology programme. It requires them to research, design, develop and produce a product for a client. The girls are not only lucky enough to design for well-regarded clients including Te Papa, The Mews, Missy’s Room and Frutti but have their work viewed by the thousands who flock to Wellington for the WOW Show.

Year 13 student Rosie Reid elaborates, “the opportunity to make a WOW inspired garment for Te Papa’s window display, really is one of the most unique and exciting chances imaginable.”

Rosie created the Bumble Bee which was inspired from an image of a black bumblebee, taken off a specimen within Te Papa’s ‘Collections’ exhibition. During the process she examined past WOW creations.

Rosie explains, “This was vital throughout the design process as I was able to pick up on interesting techniques, shapes and medians that transitioned effectively into creating an eye catching product, functional within a window display.”

Lia Penny’s garment, which will share a window with Rosie’s piece at Te Papa, was inspired by an image called the Kowhai Flower seen in the Te Papa ‘Photography Image’ collection. Her garment has a bodice embellished with Pak ‘n’ Save shopping bags, the plastic bags were shrivelled up over a heat gun to make flowers similar to that of the Kowhai flower.

“I loved seeing my garment design sketch come to life and having it displayed in the windows at Te Papa will be a proud fulfilling moment,” Lia remarks.

Jessica Bunnell will display Long Horn Beetle in the Te Papa store on Brandon Street.

“I saw this as a great opportunity to make a unique garment that I would never make again and decided to create a garment with several different unconventional materials that I hadn’t worked with before.”

This led me to investigate the use of plastic soft drink bottles as part of the garment construction. I tested and manipulated the bottles with spray paint and heat-guns and worked out how to construct them in a way that was inspired by the long antennas from the beetle and its horns.”

Barbara Knight, Materials Technology teacher, is proud of what her students have produced this year. Explaining, “this is an opportunity which money cannot buy, as many of the window displays are produced by true professionals and I believe their work deserves to stand in that arena.”

Other students who have designed garments and will be showing are Emily Small, Louisa Slack and Nisha Brunt.

Background Information
Queen Margaret College is a leading independent Presbyterian Girls’ College. It offers holistic education from Pre-School through to Year 13 and the choice of the qualification pathways of IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma and NCEA.
www.qmc.school.nz

ENDS

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