Skip to main content

Contrasting collections at Pitch fashion show

22 November, 2019

Lights, cameras, action on the catwalk! Ara Bachelor of Design (Fashion Technology and Design) students are looking forward to showing off their unique collections at the annual fashion show and exhibition, Pitch.

Audiences will see a full spectrum of work from the degree programme. The 120 pieces include individual designs from first-year students, mini collections from second-years and full collections from third-years eager to launch their careers in the fashion industry.

Pitch is considered a key fixture on the New Zealand fashion calendar, supported and endorsed by many of NZs most established designers and influential fashion industry representatives. This year two prominent local designers will be in the audience keen to scout the top talent: Rosie Trist Senior Designer for Nom-D and Liz Findlay founder of Zambesi.

Third-year students Brittany Glassey and Courtney Cansdale’s design styles are chalk and cheese. Glassey’s Pitch catwalk collection is rainbow bright and influenced by Tokyo street fashion, while Cansdale’s exhibition collection is avant-garde with a monochromatic ying and yang inspired colour palette.

Fashion in technicolour

Glassey’s collection aptly named ‘Creativity gets an upgrade’, explores how digital technology is aiding in the creative process of modern youth.

“Throughout this collection I’m taking different types of technology that we have in our everyday lives and I’m using it in a different way from its intended purpose, by applying it to fashion.”

Examples of repurposing technology can be seen throughout the collection, in the form of a functioning tablet sown into the back of a vest, to a LED circuit board flashing on a denim jacket, to an old computer monitor that will be seen on the head of a model as they strut down the runway.

“A lot of these materials are affordable and accessible. Because the youth focus around this project means that these technologies need to be available for others to manipulate and use to elevate fashion beyond its physical limitations.”

Glassey’s collection is a colour explosion and a feast for the eyes, with a close attention to detail, right down to the rings she’s fashioned out of keyboard keys and the earrings she laser cut at the Christchurch Central Library, Tūranga’s production studio.

“I find a lot of inspiration in Tokyo street fashion, anything that is about expressing yourself, bright colours, just doing whatever you want, I love that so much and I hope that comes through in my work as well.”

Contrasting collections at Pitch fashion show1.jpg

Glassey’s collection will be on display at Pitch fashion show on Saturday 23 November, 8.30pm, in the Whareora at Christchurch City Campus.

If you are interested in watching the show you can purchase your tickets for $30 on Eventbrite.

Monochromatic chaos

Cansdale opted to display her designs at the ‘Artbox’ on Ara’s Madras Street Campus instead of showing it on the runway.

She has dreams of going into costume design and has created an interactive collection which is more than it first appears to the eye.

 

“My research question has been about justifying that chaos is a complex system of order by applying the theoretical framework of chaos theory.”

“I was watching Avengers 2 and there’s an excellent quote in there, which is ‘Humans are odd. They think that chaos is the opposite to order’ and that quote revolved in my head over and over and I thought maybe chaos is order and we just don’t understand it.”

Her two-piece collection features a pristine white dress and a black dress in a matching silhouette. But that white dress won’t be clean for long… soon it will be dripping and stained with slime.

Cansdale admits she’s excited to embrace the chaos. “Slime is a liquid that’s in a constant state of change, so it’s going to be up to the spectators to put it on the dress and play with the slime and see what traces it leaves. You’re going to see all these unpredictable patterns which you couldn’t have designed because its inherently undesignable.”

To add an interactive element to the black dress Cansdale has designed 300 moveable geometric structures which connect magnetically to the garment and can be adjusted by viewers to create different looks.

Contrasting collections at Pitch fashion show2.jpg

Cansdale’s ‘Chaos is order?’ collection will be on display alongside seven others in the Art Box Gallery, at 130 Madras Street, from Tuesday 26 November 5-7pm until Saturday 30 November 10am-4pm.