Deconstructed red pantsuit takes out the 2021 Colour of Fashion prize
When a curious Jordan Tay watched his parents redesign and rebuild their family home in 2001, he was only six. That early memory of exposed, shredded timber became the inspiration for Jordan’s deconstructed red pantsuit, a design which this week has been announced the winner of Resene Colour of Fashion 2021.
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Deconstructed red pantsuit takes out the 2021 Colour of Fashion prize
When a curious Jordan Tay watched his parents redesign and rebuild their family home in 2001, he was only six. Looking back, the now twenty-six year old Aucklander living in Western Springs remembers pitching in to help.
The experience seems to have sparked an early interest in design, as Jordan went on to attend Whitecliffe Fashion Tech. And that early memory of exposed, shredded timber became the inspiration for Jordan’s deconstructed red pantsuit, a design which this week has been announced the winner of Resene Colour of Fashion 2021.
Jordan receives his prize of cash and fabric vouchers to the value of $1000 from Resene this week.
His winning design will join the work of 15 classmates from Whitecliffe Fashion Tech in the Resene Colour of Fashion 2021 collection gracing the runway at a postponed NZ Fashion Week in 2022.
Jordan is excited and grateful to be announced the winner, but not without some trepidation along the way.
He says: “It was the scariest couple of weeks, Resene Fashion of Colour being my first ever showcased piece to the world. I’m just honoured to have been able to work alongside my classmates and see their creations come to life on the day.”
Jordan says his design in paint colour Resene Smashing is like a paintbrush stroke: “bold and strong to start with, then tailing off with a flick.”
His design reimagines the wooden framing and exposed wires of his family home under construction in the jacket, and strong linear foundations in the pants.
“Having a know-how, can-do family, renovations were always going on around me. With our house being built in 1910 and my parents love for redesigning, our house and property changed constantly.
“From digging up our yard to make way for new plants, to smashing down existing walls, I was always asked to do my bit and help. Little did I know this would become my inspiration,” Jordan says.
Each year undergrads in their final year at Whitecliffe Fashion Tech in Auckland and Wellington are tasked to design, make and present to judges a work of contemporary fashion in silk, in an array of Resene paint colours, as part of their pathway to graduation.
2021 is a milestone year. It’s the 20th year of NZ Fashion Week, an achievement to be marked in 2022. It’s also the 75th year Resene has been at forefront of all things colour in New Zealand.
The judges were looking for designs that were super-current. Many of the looks hinted at design elements from 1946 – the year Resene began.
Dame Pieter Stewart, founder of NZ Fashion Week, joined Ruby General Manager Emily Miller-Sharma, Val Marshall-Smith founder of NZ Fashion Tech (now Whitecliffe Fashion Tech) and Resene marketing manager Karen Warman at the judging table.
In eight years of the Resene Colour of Fashion project, more than 220 students of fashion have been given a highly visible platform in the fashion industry on the strength of this partnership between New Zealand’s leading paint and fashion education companies.
The 16 finalists will lead Whitecliffe Fashion Tech’s graduate runway show in December (pandemic permitting) and Jordan’s win will be formally celebrated.
ends
Released by Whitecliffe Fashion Tech in association with Resene
For information contact Sally Elton, Elton PR, Ph. 09 486 5256 / 0274 980 568; Email sallyelton@xtra.co.nz
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