ITI Articles

Making the most of every opportunity, Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design Fashion Design students have been strutting their stuff in preparation for their annual catwalk show and passing with flying colours, winning top places in the DEUTZ, Style Pasifika and designEXNZ fashion competitions.

designEXNZ 07 is New Zealand’s largest, most prestigious and influential contemporary design exhibition.   For the first time, designEXNZ incorporated Plush – New Zealand’s foremost fabrics and textiles trade show.

Winners for best overall and taking home $2,000 were our Year 3 students Tara Cunniffe and Molly Barr using fabrics from Seekers.  Winning most creative and $1000 were Hyejoon Yoon and Colleen Mak for their work with Warwick Fabrics.  Mika Nishino and Maxine Wooldridge received $500 as runner up using fabrics from Marice Kain. 

The DEUTZ Fashion Design Ambassador Award is New Zealand’s leading breakthrough fashion prize. The awards are open to final year students, fresh graduates and designers new to the fashion market. Now in its seventh year, the awards are widely recognised as a key launch pad for aspiring fashion designers. Amy Chang, now in her third year achieved first runner up at the awards, and fellow student Ya Kun Cai came in the top eight for his unique fur creations.

Most recently the Style Pasifika awards were held at the Vector Arena in Auckland. The awards are a great mix of New Zealand culture against modern and traditional concepts. Fourth year student Colleen Mak entered her delicately woven design into the Asia-Pasifika category and came runner up, competing against 30 other finalists.

Amongst the winning designs was also 2006 Whitecliffe graduate Andy Smith’s; Andy currently works for Pumpkin Patch while designing his own label. Andy won Top Final Year Fashion Student when at Whitecliffe and took up the best menswear prize of $1000 in Style Pasifika as well as making it into the top three at the DEUTZ awards, with his menswear model making it onto the front page of the North Shore Times. 

To read more about Whitecliffe’s success at designEXNZ 07 go to: designEXNZ 2007 Winners