A BLING THING
Sequin queen Angela White lets loose her passion for fashion
Some fashion designers avoid sequins because they find them difficult to work with. But for Angela White, few things excite her more. The Tasmanian-born fashion and costume designer, whose celebrity clients include Jessica Mauboy, Samantha Jade and Rhonda Burchmore, has earned high praise for her sparkly creations seen on stage, in music videos and on TV shows including Dancing with the Stars and The X Factor.
“I have a reputation as the ‘sequin queen of Sydney’,” White confesses. “Numerous people have called me that now and I consider it very flattering.”
The 38-year-old works in collaboration with celebrity stylists and high-profile costume designers including Oscar-winner Tim Chappel, making intricate outfits with a focus on colour and bling. Typically her collaborators come up with a design or creative direction, then approach White to bring it to life.
She has made costumes for some of Australia’s most watched TV shows including The Voice, Australia’s Got Talent and I Will Survive. She also won a Sydney Theatre Award for costume design on the stage show Heathers two years ago and runs Revamped Fashion workshops in Australian schools.
More recently White worked as assistant costume designer on the Channel 7 program Dance Boss (which airs soon), creating 50 costumes in one hectic four-day period.
“In the last week of Dance Boss I worked 90 hours — and I loved every minute of it,” she says.
Another 2018 highlight was being asked by stylist and designer Mikey Ayoubi to make Jessica Mauboy’s dazzling Eurovision outfit, seen by 186 million TV viewers globally.
White has made many outfits for Mauboy, who she now counts as a friend.
Dressing pop stars is a dream come true for White, who started sewing at age seven with the help of her grandmother, a dressmaker. She spent her childhood crafting outfits for Barbies and being inspired by the punk fashion of Boy George and Cyndi Lauper.
“When I was two years old I was obsessed with a pair of plastic sunglasses with the lenses popped out … I would cry if Mum didn’t let me wear them,” White says.
She was dux of textiles at high school and made costumes for plays and rock eisteddfods. But after graduating from Rosny College, White didn’t feel ready to move to Melbourne and study fashion. So she got an education degree at university in Launceston, while studying fashion at TAFE one day a week.
“I was a good teacher. I cared, but I wasn’t passionate about teaching,” she says.
During a break from teaching, White holidayed on the Spanish party isle of Ibiza. Locals discovered she could sew and asked her to make costumes for podium dancers.
The buzz she got from seeing her outfits on stage — and the positive reaction from the dancers and the crowd — reignited her passion for fashion. She has been based in Sydney for the past seven years. The Spice Girls fan says making a gold jumpsuit for “Scary Spice” Mel B to wear on The X Factor judging panel was surreal.
“It’s awesome. I feel very blessed to do what I do,” she says.