Basketball gear gets designer's ball rolling

Wuhan Polytechnic, in southeast China, entered several collections in association with the Southern Institute of Technology, including this open Collection "Magnificent Collaboration". PHOTOS: RICHARD DAVISON

Donna Dinsdale, of Tauranga, was open overall Award of Excellence winner with her radical menswear design.

Bayfield High School pupil Alice Parsons, of Dunedin, pushed the envelope with her open Avant-garde entry.

Debbie Smith, of Gore, created a showstopping open Recycled entry to win the section.

The 31st Hokonui Fashion Design Awards was a chance for young designers such as Kaitlyn Hastie, of St Hilda's College, Dunedin, to demonstrate their skill and talent.

A chance find of disused sports uniforms has led to a top fashion award for a young Dunedin designer.

Year 12 Bayfield High School pupil Abby Clayton said she was rummaging through a school cupboard for recyclables when she came across the inspiration for her winning entry at Saturday night's MLT Hokonui Fashion Design Awards in Gore.

The design - a humorous take on a "sporty little number" made from old basketball singlets - won her the school Recyclable section and overall school Award of Excellence at this year's awards.

Abby (17) said although design had begun as a compulsory lesson in year 9, by year 10 she was hooked.

Abby Clayton, of Bayfield High School, Dunedin, was school overall Award of Excellence winner. Photo: Richard Davison

This was her second year entering the Hokonuis, and the win might inspire her to take the step up to the open section next year.

"I'd say design is one of my passions. I like it because there are really no boundaries to what you can make. This design took me about 60 hours to complete, but winning some prizes makes it completely worth it."

Abby receives $1500 cash and a new Bernina sewing machine.

Combining the extravagant, the exquisite and the extraordinary, the awards thrilled a sellout crowd at the Gore Town & Country Club Stadium this year.

Designs ranged from the elegant and eminently wearable to the avant-garde.

Although entered in the menswear section, overall Award of Excellence winner Donna Dinsdale's design also embraced the unorthodox.

The Tauranga design tutor's ensemble of layered tweeds in a palette of duns and khakis, topped off with a mustard PVC pilgrim's hat, generated a collective intake of breath from the crowd when it hit the catwalk, and proved to be a popular winner.

Speaking on behalf of fellow judges Sally-Ann Mullin and Wynn Crawshaw, Sara Munro, of Company of Strangers, Dunedin, praised the "amazing" calibre of entries.

The judging panel had scoured more than 340 garments from 250 entrants to identify section and overall winners and had been "astonished" by the level of skill and attention to detail, she said.

Southern designers were well represented among open section winners, including Viv Tamblyn, of Gore, in the Open Streetwear section and Debbie Smith, of Waimumu, in the Open Recycled section.

Helen Marshall, of Invercargill, won the Open Natural Fibres section.

Viv Tamblyn received the Heather Paterson QSM Memorial Trophy for Best Southland Designer.

Open Nightlife section winner Lucy Hill, of the Hagley School of Fashion, Christchurch, was chosen as 2019 Young Designer of the Year.

Founder Heather Paterson's husband, Wade, who kept the event going following her death in 2015, announced on Saturday night his family's continued sponsorship of the awards until 2024.

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