Behind the scenes 2023 – digital display

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

Fabulous is making a statement. The outfits bold, geometric lines and bright colours makes that statement. By drawing inspiration from multiple movements, such as the pop art movement, and shows such as the Powerpuff Girls. My friends and I came up with this fabulous concept and I drew it.

School: Cheltenham Girls High School

I designed a medieval fantasy-inspired villain costume with a focus on dragons, featuring a black velvet cloak, satin cape, bodice, skirt, and gauntlets. The blue-shot-purple taffeta on the skirt and bodice creates an iridescent effect, symbolising wealth and adapting well to film. Lace and beading on the bodice signify the character's societal status. The design incorporates dragon elements, using satin fabric for scales and textures, resembling Jane Spicer's work in 'Merlin' and Colleen Atwood’s in 'Snow White and the Huntsman.' The black velvet cloak enhances the ominous silhouette, while the crepe-backed satin-scaled cape adds a dragon-like appearance. The stand-up collar strengthens the villainous look. The costume conveys power and wealth through colours and features, making it fitting for an evil character.

I utilised a 3D printer to incorporate dragon scales onto the garment, fusing them with tulle for a durable bond. The 3D-printed scales complement the blue-shot-purple taffeta. Creating gauntlets with a 3D printer adds authenticity to the medieval theme, offering a comfortable yet menacing design. Overall, my creative choices resulted in a distinctive villainous character costume with a strong film presence.

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

Ok so there is a lot going on in this design. So let's break it down.

The jacket, skirt and general vibe are inspired from Project Sekai card art. Specifically, my favourite character Mizuki Akiyama (name written in western order simply to annoy people). I think they are a true fashion icon and I could gush on forever about how much I love their fashion sense but that's besides the point. The jacket is a similar style to the one in the trained card of Recreational Shopping, but with the colour palette altered. The skirt is from their birthday card, but again with a different colour pallette and stars to replace flowers. The colour palette is also inspired by Recreational Shopping (trained). As for the shirt design, that was just entirely something I thought of.

The rainbows in this are (for obvious reasons) not the normal rainbow order. This specific colour order (purple, red, yellow, aqua, pink, blue, green) is a colour order I use often because I think it is ingenious. But what is the clever bit? The colours are a slight reference to the fantasy series Evillious Chronicles, but only real fans can pick up on that. Each colour represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins (as potrayed in the series, in the order they were displayed). Subtle, but it really shows that it's a design I made.

And bows. The bows are mandatory. While yes, they are another minor reference to Mizuki, they are mostly a reference to myself. Everyone calls me the 'Queen of Bows'. I am never seen without a bow. It's kind of my statement. So I needed a design that not only incorporates one bow, but many. To get my full vibe. 

What about the starry theme? When I saw the theme for this year's costume, and just the general vibe for School Spectacular in general, i just think stars. Who wouldn't? In fact, we all ARE stars. That one is kind of self-explanatory.

My earlier concepts included some kind of feathery peacock-type theme? I don't know how to describe it. But it was a black dress with long sleeves with lots of neon feathers and beads. I thought it was cool, but I knew I had to step it up. Later, I was working on something REALLY frilly. But that failed. Then we came to this.

Google forms thinks this is getting too long and now it's lagging. I put my heart and soul into this, basically.

School: Cheltenham Girls High School

My garment consists of a handmade pattern of a bow, bodice and a skirt. The garment is initially all white, until hand dyed pink to add a touch of femininity. It also matches the mood of a cute Southern French village where the weather is warm and the people are carefree. My choice of material compliments this and you can easily envision the lace train flying behind the model in the wind and the cotton being a wonderful conductor of heat from the sun. The garment paired with intricate beading of pearls on the honeycomb smocking adds individuality and a soft touch. No use of a commercial pattern was made. This pattern was all handmade by myself. As I am a year 12 student, for part of my HSC subjects I am enrolled in Textiles and Design. I submitted this design for my Major Textiles Project. In terms of the process of creating my design, I took inspiration from Victorian Era Fashion and the Bohemian fashion of the South of France.

School: Engadine High School

I have hand sewn a corset and skirt that is extravagant and fabulous, as well as this, I plan to design and create a headpiece/wings to further increase the boldness of the design. I created my own pattern for the corset so it could be a more customised design to fit a size XXS-S. (as it is adjustable) I used a range of fabrics, trims, sequins and beads to achieve a detailed and eye catching look- Many of these sequins being hand sewn on so I could create the exact look I was after. My vision for the headpiece is inspired by a peacock feather with lots of sparkle and colour that expands out from the costume, it will be tall and bold so that it can be seen from the top of the arena!

School: Northern Beaches Secondary College Freshwater Senior Campus

The work submitted is a 'shark-bite' jumpsuit, constructed using a 'Fabulous' bright red woven crepe fabric and tonal glass gemstones. The jumpsuit, featuring a decorative torso cutout reminiscent of a shark bite, is a heavily modified remake of a clown costume pattern, assigned to me during my textiles and design class in school. It has been constructed with a slim, streamlined fit, machine sewn with coordinating thread then hand-finished with over 150 glass beads. The completed design features wide shoulder straps, a rear zip, thin hems and a cutout placed at the hip and encased in faceted and round glass beads. 

The item has deep personal value, as it was the first couture-adjacent item I'd sewn, effectively acting as a gateway to the striking, bold aspects of fashion design. Following this, the jumpsuit was the central piece to my digital portfolio, @kalracollective on Instagram, which I unveiled on my sixteenth birthday.

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

My design was inspired by the greats gatsby (a novel we studied in class) and essentially pirate themes. Through trial and error and help from my friends (who i worked with), we decided on this concept drawing.

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

I thought about functionality of the outfit. Bold and sparkly colours will be able to be seen in the arena so I incorporated those.

I thought about the affordability of making the outfits in a short amount of time. The outfit is more about the distinct colour and how the fabric is manipulated to create a fabulously beautiful vision while enabling movement. It can be made out of normal coloured fabric for people from all walks of life.

Design 1  – It is an A-line skirt with a parting in the middle to ensure no dance movements will be restricted. The peacock feathered skirt is attached to the A-line skirt with golden buttons. It is layered to resemble the tail of a peacock while not being too heavy, nor will it drag on the dance floor. The upper part of the outfit is a peacock designed leotard.

Design 2 – It has a circle skirt so that the skirt can flare up when the person spins and the light will catch the vibrant colours of sunset and sunrise
Short trailing sleeves so that the dress not only looks fabulous but the person feels fabulous in it, like a million dollars.

Design 3 – The A-line skirt was pleated to enable the dancer more flexibility. It was made from an elegant and chic view point.

Design 4 – Same with design 4 for the skirt and the trail sleeves.

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

The design for this costume was inspired by the 1920s when fashion was big and spectacular. I felt like this idea adheres with the theme of 'Fabulous'.

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

I wanted to incorporate a sort of shiny, sparkly  material into the main skirt and the corset area as I think it will make it pop out more when worn. I also only found out about this competition 3 days before it ended so this is only a rough sketch. I made the dress look simplistic, enough so you can add accessories, while also having pizzaz.

School: Murrumbateman Public School

Girls: white top, skirt made out of different coloured materials, wrist bands made out of different coloured, hair in pony-tail and white shoes.

Boys: white top, shorts covered in different coloured materials, bright caps, wrist bands made out of different coloured, white shoes.

School: Hurlstone Agricultural High School

I worked really hard on this design and it incorporates things that I love the most. Though it was not my first choice, and to be honest I wanted to submit more, I feel like this is the best. I was about to quit and not to this competition at all, but I'm a big believer of signs and there were a lot of signs telling me I should do this. So I stayed up late and drew this, the accessories are optional but I forgot to include them in the final design and even if I did- I doubt you'd be able to see them clearly. I love fire, not in a weird way but I love to incorporate it in any creative activity I participate in. Another fun fact is that I'm writing a story which I'm also entering in a competition, and this dress is shown in that book.

School: Cheltenham Girls High School

I created my 'Can Can Dress' design for my Textiles and Design Major Work. My design was inspired by my love for theatre and dance as I have personally done the Can Can. The process of making my design was quite challenging due to the degree of difficulty especially with all of the ruffles on the underside of the skirt.