Three Design students in Pasifika fashion finals

Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Culturally-inspired creativity puts three Design students in Pasifika fashion finals

Colourful creative garments with a difference have netted high honours for three students who were finalists at Westfield Style Pasifika fashion awards show in Auckland on Friday.

Stephanie Schilderink made the finals of the Asia Pasifika section with a dress (pictured, right) made of organza and bamboo, inspired by her Filipino heritage.

Miss Schilderink, originally from Waihi, is in her third year of a Bachelor of Design, majoring in fashion design at the Wellington campus. This was her first major competition entry.

“I’m half Filipino, half Dutch so I really looked into the Filipino culture for this design," she says. "A lot of people there have to stand on their own two feet from an early age. Life’s tough and the people have to be tough, just like the traditional Filipino huts.

"I based my design on the hut, using bamboo strips and light see-through copper organza to reflect communal living and the hut’s structure.”

All three students who were finalists are taking a fashion competition paper this year.

For her entry in the Traditionally Inspired section, Morgan Cotton of Wellington, took her cues from traditional Maori clothing. Her design (left) is three pieces – a bodice, piupiu (skirt), and cloak. Cut-out and stenciled lettering of Miss Cotton’s whakapapa make up the bodice and are printed on the cloak.

She says her first major competition entry was “time-consuming but worth it”, having spent “hours and hours” threading red tubing for the piupiu.

Philippa Lake, also a third-year Bachelor of Design student from Wellington, was a finalist in the Urban Pasifika Street Wear category with a black and white geometric dress (right) she made during a holiday break.

“When it was finished, mum said it looked like a Pasifika tattoo so I entered at the last minute.”

ENDS

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