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Eve Hunter has found a way to combine her two passions - horse riding and fashion - creating a ball gown-shaped garment out of feed sacks and baling twine.
The 16-year-old from Central Hawke’s Bay boards at Iona College and made the dress as part of her design andtechnology class - using “preloved farm waste, to show its versatility”.
Hunter has a love for riding, including dressage, show jumping and cross-country.
“I wanted to include that in my garment with materials I see around at home that we use every day, but we don’t think about.
She wanted the dress to be a reflection of the jobs that get pushed aside as a horse rider and farmer.
“This represents the stress of everyday life as a busy farmer and or equestrian, being bound together with the simple tasks that eventually build up to an unwanted, over-complicated task.”
She cut and hot-glued about 400 squares from the blue, black and yellow McMillan Equine Sacks to form the fabric of the dress.
Eve Hunter, modelling a gown she made out of horse feed sacks and baling twine.
Hunter also used baling twine, typically used to bind hay bales, to create a crown and plaited details through the dress.
Hunter also refashioned her mother’s wedding dress corset for the project, and enlisted her help to make the skirt.
Hunter said this was the hardest part of the design process, to make and keep the shape of the big skirt.
“It was basically a massive rectangle that was bigger than my kitchen table and I had to transport it to school and somehow make it take the form that it did on stage.”
Eve Hunter has a love for riding, including dressage, show jumping and cross-country.
Photo / JH Photography.
She said the project started halfway through Term 1 and was completed three weeks into Term 2.
The dress was entered into the TOI wearable art showcase in Hastings, something Hunter described as a smaller version of World of Wearable Arts and named “in the back of my mind”.
She said she received two certificates, one for powerful storytelling - for the story behind the garment- and one for innovative use of materials.
Hunter said she had a love for fashion and studied it throughout her school years, but was also influenced by her grandmother Jane Hunter.
“It all started with my Nana, she was an artist... and she always had marvellous paintings all around her house and was always up to some new sculpture.
“I loved how she used all of her creative thoughts and was able to put it into something physical, and not just keep it in her head.”
Hunter said she believed her Nana would have liked her use of different materials, and the rethink in how the items can be repurposed.
She hoped to continue to take her skills to the next level and study fashion further at school.
“It would be really cool if I could make something out of it for myself, once I have left school.”
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
