Fashion is a shared family passion for a mother and daughter, who each won a major award at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards on Saturday night.
The annual event, in its 28th year, came to a close at 11pm just after the Bonz Award for Excellence was given to Andre Johnston, of Gore, for her cross-stitch design in the open nightlife section.
Mrs Johnston was rendered speechless when she found out she had won.
She has entered sporadically since 1998 and won various awards through the years, but never the overall award for excellence.
A full-time mother, Mrs Johnston said fashion design was her true passion and she spent many hours when she could creating new designs.
She had completed a bachelor of fashion design degree at Otago Polytechnic.
"Now with my family and things, I still like to keep my hand in it [fashion design].''
Her dress design, with an elaborate cross-stitch pattern of roses, took her more than 240 hours to complete.
"My heart and soul went into my design,'' she said.
Inspired by Alexander McQueen, Mrs Johnston was worried her initial ideas would take a "number of years'' to finish.
She said she would not be able to follow her passion without the help and support of her family.
Her mother, Viv Tamblyn, won the Heather Paterson Memorial Trophy for the Best Southland Designer.
Mrs Johnston said it was amazing and she was "really proud'' of her mother.
She said it was great just to see her designs worn on the catwalk and winning an award on top of that was just an added bonus.
Other top winners were Zoe Beck, of Tauranga, who won the Auaha award, Norah MacLachlan, of Tauranga, who won the Hand Knitted award and Emma Schdroski, of Masterton, who won the award for the garment with the most potential award.
Jennie-Hasler Jacobs, of Balclutha, was runner-up in the Fantasia section which was won by Laura Black, of Invercargill.
Lenon Wakuwa, of Invercargill, stood out as the only designer to model his own creation and received a highly commended award in the Nightlife section, which was also won by Mrs Johnston.
Awards convener Wade Paterson said a highlight of the night was seeing mother and daughter Mrs Tamblyn and Mrs Johnston each winning a major award.
It was also the first time since 1998 someone from Gore had won the overall award for excellence.
Mr Paterson said he had received a lot of positive feedback on the show and the "slickness'' of the event.
"That's what we do pride ourselves on is presenting a fast-paced slick show and I think we achieved that again.''
He was very happy with how the night had run and proud of his team's work.
