2007 Supreme Winner

2007 Primary Section Winner

2007 Year 9/10 Section Winner

In 2003 Marlborough’s Queen Charlotte College’s Wearable Designz Production was named Supreme Winner at the TrustPower Marlborough Community Awards.  This inspirational production was recognised for the unique way it brought together students and the community to foster and promote the arts in an innovative and exciting way. 

While the Wearable Designz Production has become part of the school curriculum at Queen Charlotte College, this event continues to be completely volunteer driven.  It was one of those very volunteers who provided TrustPower Community Connect with this short history of what is growing to be one of Marlborough’s most loved events.

A Short History of Wearable Designz (WD)

“Promoting and showcasing the Arts at Queen Charlotte College (QCC)”

The inaugural WD show began back in 1998 with very creative events organizers and a forward thinking committee. The huge success of this show paved the way for all future events allowing the wonderful opportunity to showcase some of Marlborough’s best young design talent.  Today the Queen Charlotte College Wearable Designz show is held biannually.

Exciting Innovative Themes

The theme for the shows that followed have continued to be diverse and thought provoking, engaging the designers in a myriad of textiles, colours and designs and challenging them to come up with garments for such themes as “The Third Millennium”, “Ancient Civilisations”, “Beneath and Beyond” and “Inside Out/ Upside-Down".

Expectations exceeded every time

Each year the shows continue to exceed expectations and have now gained wide spread recognition, winning such prestigious awards as “Supreme Winner” for the Marlborough Trust Power Community Award and a very close “2nd place” in the Jade Excellence in Education Award. 

Each time the event is staged the number of entries increase with more tertiary and adult participation as the competition becomes more of a regular focus in the Marlborough / Nelson Arts Calendar.

Achieving the Objective

Since its conception the WD show has involved many aspects of the school curriculum, with special emphasis on Design Technology and the Arts. Although it is a compulsory section of the Year 7 and 8 and more recently the Years 9-10 curriculum the show endeavours to encompass all ages through the education field.

The latest show

Last year’s show was themed Kiwiana Creations and included some innovative musical items from our school choir, kappa haka group and seniors as well as some inspirational pieces from our talented drama and dance performers.  The 2007 Supreme Winner was Lee Stuart from Year Seven, with her entry titled “Beauty of the Flax”.

Getting behind our event!

Sponsorship/ Community Involvement

This is an amazing opportunity for the business sector to get behind a tremendously worthwhile educational project. We have been very fortunate indeed with the level of sponsorship and support from our local community for each of our shows.

Innovative teaching practices and great results!

QCC is a proud leader in innovative teaching practices with dedicated staff who are encouraged to have a clear vision for the future. We actively involve the local primary schools, tertiary education facilities and the wider community to become part of this wonderful production. We view this as a tremendous opportunity to promote the Arts in the Marlborough Arena by actively fostering young creative talent in all disciplines and aspects of the fine arts arena.

For more information about the Queen Charlotte College’s Wearable Designz Production please contact:

Jann Hook

Email: mahia01@xtra.co.nz

Phone: 03 573 4089