Accessible News

Top storiesNew ZealandPoliticsBusinessEntertainmentSportsWorld

Girls’ night out becomes a winner at Hokonui Fashion Design Awards

Sunday, 28 July 2024

Hokonui Fashion Design Awards winner 2024 Tegan Rose Vickery

It was meant to be a fun night out with her mum and sister, but it turned out to be a winner.

Tegan Rose Vickery, a student at the Otago Polytechnic School of Fashion, won the overall prize at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards in Gore on Saturday night.

“This is really surreal,” she said just moments after her win was announced.

The prize, the Mataura Licensing Trust Award of Excellence, was her second of the night. She also won the New World Open Daywear Award.

“I entered but I had no idea I was in with a chance, and then I won the day-wear section. I thought the winner of the collections award won it overall, so I’m like, what the hell?”

Her day-wear entry, an oversized orange suit made of linen canvas and matched with a silk blouse, was inspired by a personal battle.

“I’m a recovering bulimic, so this design was about hiding my body and making yourself feel comfortable and my issues with that,” she said.

“And after having a slight relapse over the summer, this is what all of my energy went into, so this was my bubble.”

Tegan Rose Vickery, right, won the Mataura Licensing Trust Award of Excellence at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards.
Tegan Rose Vickery, right, won the Mataura Licensing Trust Award of Excellence at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards.

Vickery is in her third year at design school, which includes finishing five collections, each with five garments.

“This was my last year entering because next year I thought about going overseas for a year or two doing something like grading, something within the industry just to get a bit of experience.”

Model Olivia Earl said the outfit was easy to wear on the catwalk, despite the extended length of the trousers.

“It was pretty easy to walk in; I was really comfortable, actually,” she said.

The awards, in their 36th year, drew entries from budding designers from around the country.

Francesca Favel’s design won the Open Avant Garde Award.
Francesca Favel’s design won the Open Avant Garde Award.

There are separate sections for high school students, and tertiary design school students and other amateur designers compete in the open section.

The awards were judged by Natalie Newlands of Queenstown studio New Lands, Vicki Taylor of Auckland label Taylor, and fashion stylist and creative director Sammy Salsa.

Salsa said he “gagged” with delight at Vickery’s entry.

“The whole garment had a place in the industry. I could see the person that was wearing it nationally and internationally.”

Convenor Jacqui McKinney talks about the MLT Hokonui Fashion Design Awards 2024

Taylor said: “It was just so vibrant and colourful and just beautifully made.

“The pants that are underneath it are seriously quite incredible. The jacket – the work at the back is really quite amazing.”

Newlands said: “We were all really excited about it, the colours and the textures … There were a lot of exaggerated elements which caught our attention.”

All judges agreed that the standard of entries was exceptionally high, and they were especially impressed with the creativity in the school sections.

“This is my second year down here, and each time I come, I’m really amazed at what I get to see – the level of talent that comes out from around New Zealand and the level of creativity that comes out, especially down here,” Taylor said

May Dyson of Tuatapere took home the School Natural Fibres Award for this design.
May Dyson of Tuatapere took home the School Natural Fibres Award for this design.

The winner of a new Otago Polytechnic and iD Fashion Dunedin Sustainable Excellence award was May Dyson, of Tuatapere. She also won the School Natural Fibres Award.

In an online post she said she was “stoked and honoured to be presented with such a special award”.

Award winners

Open-entry sections:

School-entry sections: