Resene NZ Fashion Tech Colour of Fashion 2018 – left to right designs by Jo Shierlaw (Wellington), Tessa Gould (Auckland) and Nooroa Taulagaua (Auckland). Image by Craig Ray.
The finalists have been announced for this year’s Resene NZ Fashion Tech Colour of Fashion. This is the fifth year the collaboration has been run between Resene and NZ Fashion Tech with 35 students taking up the challenge of creating a silk garment in a fashion paint colour from Resene. The talented group of students came up with looks inspired by a brief which takes their creative thought into an edgy contemporary world of colour and design, refuses ‘to bow to the convention of ordinary’ and embodies uplifting themes of feminine empowerment.
Out of the group of 35, the top 17 were selected by judges to show on the Resene Designer Runway at New Zealand Fashion Week 2018. Judges included Doris de Pont, Resene Marketing Manager Karen Warman, Founder of NZ Fashion Tech Val Marshall-Smith and guest judge Janey Evett of New Zealand Fashion Week. They were presented with thoughtful, creative and broad-ranging design stories citing characters as diverse as a Mediterranean shellfish, Paris glitterati, a comfy green couch, Louis XIV, a daredevil Pukeko and an African goddess of love and sensuality.
“Each year students tell us how grateful they are for the commercial exposure this project brings, the career platform it builds and the splash of colour it gives their portfolios,” says Karen Warman of Resene. “We love seeing these talented young people immerse themselves wholeheartedly in their colour and illustrate to thousands of people at Fashion Week how colour tells a story.”
Each young designer is in their final year of study at NZ Fashion Tech’s Auckland and Wellington campuses and as part of this project were given a chance to be part of a professional fashion shoot. They also directed their own portfolio photos behind the camera, appear in media coverage for the event and feature in an online gallery hosted by Resene showcasing their work.
This year’s winner of Resene NZ Fashion Tech Colour of Fashion will be announced at NZFW in late August. Their prize includes a new industrial sewing machine and an engraved pair of shears of the highest quality, gifted by Resene.
The talented finalists are:
Auckland
Amber Sterritt 21
Tessa Gould 19
Nisi Sumuletu 20
Terry Krause 20
Phibae Sein 20
Carol Hingano 20
Nooroa Taulagaua 20
Claudia Osner 22
Makyla Ata 21
Jordan Grant 21
Wellington
Anastasia Leuluai 20
Michael Mells 19
Mia Williams 19
Louisa Gibson 27
Elisabeth Clink 32
Jessy Lewis 20
Jo Shierlaw 22
Tickets to the three public Resene Designer Runway shows at NZFW go on sale on iTicket today.
Design in Resene Hopbush by Jordan Grant (Auckland).
Design in Resene Sunrise by Jessy Lewis (Wellington).
Design in Resene Madison by Mia Williams (Wellington).
Design in Resene Paradise by Carol Hingano (Auckland).
Images by Craig Ray.