DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Two textile students go the extra mile to dress themselves for their school formal.
For year 12 textile student Mikayla Cannan, making an outfit herself to wear to her school formal presented advantages that she wouldn’t have had if she had bought off the rack. Namely, she was able to make sure what she wore reflected her personality and identity.
“Creating my own garments allows me to put my own creative touch on the clothing that I am wearing. This way I can cater what I’m making to my style, instead of going out to shops and hoping that I’ll find clothes that suit me.
“I got the inspiration to design a blazer because I didn’t want to wear a dress to the formal. I wanted to stand out from what everyone else was wearing.
“I also was not comfortable with showing up to this year’s formal in a dress due to having a more masculine style.”
From start to finish the process of designing and sewing the custom black velvet blazer with lilac silk lining took Cannan about six weeks of class time in her textiles class, and the materials cost about $150.
The Dunedin resident, who has been taking textile classes for six years, admits tackling a technically challenging garment like a blazer has been something of a “learning process”. But despite some patterning setbacks, and having to adapt her original check design for a fabric that would be easier to pattern match, seeing the final product has been worth the hard work.
“It makes the garment more special on the day of the formal because you know that what you are wearing is something that you have created yourself.”
Self-expression was also a motivating factor for Otago student Amelia Zhang to design her formal dress.
Zhang, who admits she can be “very competitive”, says she undertook the task because “I wanted to challenge myself, but I also took this as an opportunity [that] allowed me to expand my knowledge about the relationship between my body and fabric.
“I wanted my dress to be special, an original dress that was made specifically for my style and body, and a dress that I couldn’t purchase online.”
Completing her formal gown, an off-the-shoulder, black and white creation that incorporates an oversized white bow and a dramatic leg slit, took her about eight days, but Zhang has been planning her formal outfit in one form or another since she was in year 10.
She had set up a Pinterest board to collate images of details she might want to incorporate into her one-of-a-kind design.
Designing her dress from scratch, and completing the work herself has meant she could customise the gown to her aesthetic and specifications.
“My dress has a little train at the back, and my fear [was] that people would accidentally step on my dress, especially when we’re dancing.” Zhang’s solution: “sew a ring on the inside of the train”.
“When I’m dancing, I can place the hidden ring on my finger, which would reduce the length of my dress. When I take photos I can take the ring off to show the full dress.”
As a long-time fashion lover, Zhang hopes that the experience helps her future studies in fashion, but also realised that having the autonomy to design what she wears has been empowering, as it came at a time when she and her peers were “slowly transitioning from girlhood to womanhood”.
On a practical level, she also welcomed the opportunity to save money on what is often a costly purchase. By sourcing the fabric from the recycled pile in the textiles room at her school, and using materials she had at home, Zhang was able to make the dress for $37.40.
“Reusing and recycling encourages new use out of old material, which helps reduce waste in our environment.
“The feeling you receive knowing that something you designed comes alive is
really quite special.”