Burgess Hill Girls are celebrating the success and fantastic achievement of one of their sixth form who is becoming the ‘name for the future’ in fashion design. Allegra C who is studying both Art and Textiles in the Sixth Form has won a prestigious competition held at the ICHF Events Fashion and Embroidery exhibition at the NEC. This is the name to remember as the talent of the future.
Allegra’s design work was selected by the judges from over a hundred entries in January. Since then Allegra has worked incredibly hard to manufacture her very ambitious creation which was inspired by both modern and ancient architecture. Her chosen fashion icon was Lady Gaga, because she would wear outrageous outfits.
Allegra used many building in her wonderful outfit; The London Gherkin, Sydney Opera House, Ancient Roman Columns, and the Egyptian Pyramids. All aspects of the outfit were very structured and based on buildings. Her colour theme was neutral; grey, cream and silver to represent stone, concrete and metallic elements used in architecture.
The outfit took many hours of work but Allegra looked stunning when she modelled the pieces on the catwalk in Birmingham on 17th March 2017. It was very exciting when the judges awarded Allegra first prize stating that they were very impressed with the way that she stuck to the design brief and her high standard of workmanship.
Talking after the presentation, Allegra said “This was a truly amazing and educational journey from start to finish. I spent approximately 100 hours on this project around my A Level coursework. I set myself the task to push my designing to a whole new level and to incorporate every part and more of the brief. The most challenging but rewarding aspect was the transition of my design to reality. This project was a true feat of fabric engineering and manipulation. It has enhanced my textiles skills and allowed me to become more expressive with my design. I could not have done this without the incredible support of my Textiles teachers, Mrs Bradley, my school and of course my family.
Mrs Bradley, Allegra’s teacher of Textiles, said “We are all so very proud of Allegra’s achievements. The success she had in national competitions is quite incredible.”
This was the design brief issued:
DESIGN BRIEF
Students are asked to design a garment or outfit using architecture as inspiration. Their finished pieces must contain fabric manipulation to echo elements found within buildings structures, such as pleats, pin tucks, smocking, and embroidery.
When researching look at a range of different architectural styles,
and to high-end designers and current trends, to see how they are inspired and incorporate fabric manipulation into their designs. Using various media we would like all entrants to produce three A3 mood boards.
