Kilreda College student Bridgette Veneris’s winning Wool4School entry in the junior category.

AUSTRALIAN Wool Innovation has announced the 2020 winners of its prestigious Wool4School competition, which encourages budding designers to create innovative garment designs incorporating wool.

This year, Wool4School challenged students to design a garment or outfit inspired by flora and fauna and incorporating fibres which are gentle on the earth.

AWI said this year’s participants took on this challenge and applied their talent into the designs that went above and beyond expectations.

The junior category winner was Bridgette Veneris from Kilreda College at Mentone in Victoria and runner-up was Sarah Uhrig, Scotch College, Adelaide, South Australia. The mid category winner was Varna Shetty, St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, Western Australia, and the runner-up was Mia Wilson, St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, Western Australia. In the senior category, Vivian Ly from St Monica’s College at Epping in Victoria was the winner and the runner-up was Miriam Trezise, from the same college.

The ‘aspiring category’ winner was Simran Prasad from Aldridge State High School in Queensland and the runner-up was Cecilia Cheah from Georges River College, New South Wales.

The winner of the teacher category was Jill Pettifer from Dickson College in the Australia Capital Territory and the runner-up was Tina Fitzgerald, Sunshine Beach State High School, Queensland.

Junior category winner Bridgett Veneris said her design was based on a whale shark.

“The top of the dress has different shades of blue which represents the ocean.

“The skirt is the pattern on the whale sharks back and the headpiece represents the shark’s teeth and ocean waves,” she said.

Wool4School program manager Ashley Hollis said she was impressed with this year’s entries.

“They were very diverse from previous years and it really shows how students are absorbing the information.

“Congratulations to all the finalists and winners,” she said.

The panel of judges included leading Australian fashion designer Jonathan Ward and key industry representatives, who carefully assessed each and every submission before eventually deciding on the winners and runners-up.

Mr Ward highlighted the creative flair in the designs of the junior category.

“The standard of entries for the junior category is exceptional this year.

“The level of creativity and thought process has only increased the standard for next year’s competition,” he said.

“I am excited to see their vision for their next competition, as they transcend to the mid category.”

Dion Lee retail and online brand manager Donald Chung commended senior winner Vivian Ly.

“Vivian conveys a clear and original concept, which reflects The Woolmark Company’s brief.

“Her concept summary is detailed, particularly when breaking down the wool and wool blend quantities of the garment,” he said.

“Vivian’s flora and fauna concept, inspired by her Chinese-Australian heritage is what was imaginative, and innovative – this differentiated her from other candidates.”

2020 Wool4School aspiring category winner Simran Prasad.

Wool4School 2020 aspiring category winner Simran Prasad said she has been competing since 2016. She said the competition was a wonderful opportunity to develop her interest in fashion design as well as the journey to producing a final product.

“Yet, I would always fall short of winning, but this gave me multiple chances to improve my technical sketching skills, thinking processes and decision making for specific ideas that match the criteria and my vision.

“This competition gave me the prospect to have fun, be creative and follow my true passion.”

Wool4School partnered with the Whitehouse Institute of Design to offer the aspiring category winner Simran Prasad the life-changing experience of a two-year scholarship.

For more information on Wool4School click here.