fast>>fwd
This is my entry for the deZigners competition, sponsored by the Canadian department store Zellers.
It was a competition that we all did in the second semester of third year. There were three categories which you picked from a hat, and three top prizes in each category. Very decent cash prizes too, a tip of the hat to hbc for providing the means to buy this computer which makes finalfashion.ca possible.
So I picked the Sportek category, for 8-14 year old girls. It’s basically brightly coloured play clothes for kids, but with a sporty sort of look.
The trend director from the Bay came and gave us a presentation about the different trends we could play on for our entries. The first phase was to pick one trend, and do five figure illustrations.
I chose a trend called “Sonic Youth”. It was sort of a retro-cool, bright-80s colours, surfer dude sort of look.
And so I thought… what is retro for an 8-14 year old?
Guess what? I managed to move forward into phase two.
Phase two selected six finalists in each category. Our assignment was to create a 14 piece collection on a presentation board, all technical drawings and colourways and swatches. This presentation board has long disappeared. But I still have some samples of the flats.
This is how I did the swatches: I cut out squares of coloured card, and mounted a swatch to them with a zigzag of brightly coloured machine stitching. Then I double-sided taped the card to the board. Pretty nifty way to tie in with the design details I thought.
I also included this kid on the board to kind of give it a little illustrative flair, y’know? Vector technical drawings can seem so static.
We also had to sew up one outfit, by ourselves, in the lab. No contracting allowed! So here’s the picture of a terrific girl (isn’t she a great model?) in the outfit I made myself.
So I won! It was awesome. I bought a computer. I got to go on BreakfastTelevision on CityTV, I got interviewed and a lot of press. But that wasn’t all.
I got to go to Zellers and see an outfit I designed for sale! I bought some too. I got an outfit for my amazing cousin Zoe out on the west coast (send pictures, Zoe!), and I got an outfit for saving (maybe in a frame or something, I don’t know. Original hangers and hangtags intact!).
I also got a couple shirts for me to wear. Because it fits, and I can’t resist.
All in all it was an amazing experience. Thank you Zellers!
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I’m a fashion student also and I’m in quite a dilemma trying to get a hold on my ideas for a design competition.
So when you were designing the childrens outfits what did you have in mind appart from the theme and age group? Were you thinking how to design a ‘seller’ that would win you the prize or just doing whatever you liked or something that would look good?
Hi Oleysa,
I also looked at the Zellers television advertising to get an idea of the kind of “energy” they might be looking for. I also tried to think about what criteria the judges might be looking for in an entry.
In second year I did a similar contest sponsored by another company. My friend Alex and I were in friendly competition with eachother, both of us trying hard to win. In the end she won and I got second. I remember that my entry’s presentation was laboriously neat and tidy, but I was very conservative with the designs. Whereas Alex’s designs had more spunk and creativity, even though she didn’t even spell her title correctly! That taught me a lesson about trusting my own creative instincts a little more. It’s better to err on the side of too “out there” because it shows what you can do.
Presentation is very important too. Attention to detail does get noticed, so plan your time carefully so you’re not rushing and skipping steps at the end. Pick a concept that feels “right” and get started, especially if your due date is soon, don’t overthink it! This project was very large and squeezed in right after another large project so I was going on only a few hours a night by the end of it and took shortcuts on my layout which I regret. I’m lucky I had my illustrative strengths going for me because my competition was certainly very talented.
In the end you just do your best and don’t worry about it. No matter what you’ll get a great portfolio piece out of it and a story to tell. I’m going to be showing one of my competition entries that didn’t win soon so I know what that’s like too.
Good luck on your entry!
Great graphic! Really plugs in well with the market.
What a great accomplishment to add to your growing repetoire. This entire website is fascinating (and I’m not into reading about other ppls work/lives…esp. ppl I do not know…but my Aunt gave me your link (Uniqueform) to check out as I am a PAST graduate of fashion design myself (just not of Ry). Keep it up…it’s inspiring!
hi, im 14 years old and im really into fashion and im aiming to be a fashion designer espeacially after having a dream that my dream actually came true lol. Im really loving your style and i hope that somthing like that will happen to me too so that i can aim for the highest from there. Im currently doing art and textiles in school and i hope to get a high grade so that i can accomplish what i want. I know that the fashion industry is pretty hard to get into and very unpredictable but im willing to go that extra mile to accomplish my dream. I know dat its kinda out of this world but If theres anyone reading this who can take a look at my designs id be very grateful. :)
Congrats! the design is cool, I wonder if I can still get one?
[...] have had some great experiences with competitions. Back when I was in school, I won a competition sponsored by Zellers, and with the prize money I bought the Mac G5 that I am writing this post on. That was a [...]