Sweet fashion inspiration

A childhood treat provided some sweet inspiration for Marlene Lewis to create the Supreme Winning creation at the Taranaki Fashion Art Awards.

"Second Hand Rose" made of hundreds of egg cartons not only received the top prize at the competition but also won the Rainbow of Complete Colour category.

Marlene, who works at Stratford Primary School in curriculum support, says she has always had an interest in wearable arts and design. "I was on a trip to Wellington with my sons when I went to a World Of Wearable Art show and was fascinated by the design and engineering of each piece."

When entering the competition Marlene says she found inspiration in a memory of when she was young. "I couldn't stop thinking about Dolly Varden cakes from when I was little, with the delicate icing roses."

Marlene says hours and hours of work went into replicating those roses out of egg cartons and engineering the construction of the dress.

The whole dress is created on an aluminium frame and the bottom of the dress has wheels to create the illusion that the model is floating across the stage.

Marlene says one of the biggest highlights of the competition is working with her model, Opunake High School student, Sarah Haden (14).

"At the beginning of the competition we were all assigned a model and I got a cracker!"

Marlene says Sarah, Miss Teen Taranaki 2015, brought her design to life on the stage, "she really made the outfit what it was".

Marlene's enthusiasm towards wearable art it seems is infectious and encouraged four Stratford Primary School students to also enter the competition.

"We've never done anything like this before but Marlene showed us how fun and exciting it can be," says Hannah Patterson (13).

Saskia Paul (12) says they are a part of a school extension programme which gave the students the opportunity to try their hand at this project.

Hannah and her partner Dharma Power (12) constructed a piece titled "Buttons and Bows" and Saskia and her partner Georgia Rowland (12) created "Floral Fantasy". Hannah says while the pieces were a lot of work, seeing the girls working on them for hours at a time, it is worth it.

It is all worth it when you see it on the stage

Both pieces made by the students were constructed out of 75 per cent recyclable material and both were named finalists in their category Bring Mystery to Life.