The gear you wear down on the farm can also look good out on the street, a group of students aim to show this week. Yesterday 19 second-year students at Wanganui Ucol's fashion school showed their outdoorsy creations to a group of industry specialists who had donated the fabrics ? oilskin,canvas and knits using possum, merino and cashmere. Each student had to make a three-piece outfit suitable for wear on the street, on tour or out on the farm. They had two months to design and make the clothes, and their work was critiqued yesterday by staff from Oscar Eide Apparel and Manawatu Knitting Mills. Design tutor Jenni Rosenthal said the students could usually create whatever clothes they were interested in, but this time they had to get to grips with unfamiliar materials and think about possible markets. "The ones that I think have done really well are the ones that almost got more creative because of the limitations. There are some really successful ones." The 19 will also show their garments at Friday's Ms-Understood show at the Royal Wanganui Opera House. The show usually lasted more than an hour and sold out all 800 seats, production tutor Wendy Bullock said. This year it would feature six to nine outfits in nine individually themed collections from the third year students at the school. And the 22 first-year students would show an outfit each, made of natural fibres. Their theme this year was the Whanganui River ? its cultures, history and geography. Each student could choose the music that went with their creations and the models that wore them, and they got help with choreography if that was needed. Mrs Bullock said fashion tutors were surprised anew each year by what students came up with. "We keep thinking they have done it all, and then they keep doing different stuff."
