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For Gemma Coulman a knock back with her entry in the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards earlier this year has turned to gold, in the form of high honours from Otago Polytechnic.
When the Māruawai College head girl submitted a trio of patchwork garments for the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards (HFDA) earlier this year, her entry was not accepted because one garment was too small.
Gemma, 18, then entered them as part of her application for an Otago Polytechnic scholarship for its fashion design programme.
Gemma was awarded an excellence award as part of the Otago Polytechnic Celebrate Design Secondary School Design Awards in August.
Gemma viewed the sizing setback as an opportunity.
“It was a bit of a devastating blow just because, when you do something like that, it takes so long,” Gemma said.
“But, at the same time, that was a massive learning experience.”
The garments, made from fabric from her uncle’s business, Guthrie Bowron, had taken shape over the past 16 months.
Gemma said there were no hard feelings about the HFDA blip.
“It was just one of those things, you don’t know what you don’t know,” she said.
She said the team of volunteers who made HFDA possible were “incredible”.
Gemma said she found out she had won the Otago Polytechnic award, which was runner-up to the polytechnic scholarship, when she found it at the bottom of the box when her garments arrived back at her school from Dunedin.
She did not expect the award, but was glad her hard work had paid off, Gemma said.
In 2024, Gemma entered a black dress in the HFDA, when she was in year 11.
The award, part of the polytechnic’s Celebrate Design exhibition, had over 50 entries in product design, communication design, and fashion design.
The Otago Polytechnic secondary school design showcase awarded one tertiary scholarship in each category toward study there.