Kiwi ingenuity in designer's clothes

Margaret Lewis started on the path to designing clothes by weaving and knitting with bits of fleece picked from farm fences in the hills of the West Coast.

And a touch of Kiwi ingenuity still features in her designs, which will be shown at the Style Pasifika Fashion Awards tonight at the Vector Arena.

Her entry in the three-piece collection category are garments made from old organic coffee sacks.

The lining of her coffee-sack jacket is a painter’s drop cloth she found.

The idea came from a cafe-owner friend who asked her to make him a pair of
trousers out of leftover sacks.

For the bridal category she has created a gown with a knitted jacket and hand woven tapestry on the back.

The Westmere resident says she finds inspiration in forgotten, discarded, pre-loved fabrics.

"It makes me angry that people do these technically beautiful things and then they're left lying around
and get dumped in op shops and garage sales," she says.

"I like making them beautiful and useable and functional again."

While making clothes and selling them at the Cook Street markets in the 1980s, she became frustrated at the lack of fabrics and colours available from wholesalers and decided to start making her own.

She bought a knitting machine and went to classes but "had absolutely no interest in knitting baby clothes" and so started making her own patterns.

"I've never really stopped since then," she says.

Her entry in last year's awards made it to the finals of the urban design section.

Margaret now sells her clothes at markets and online at the www.etsy.com website.

If she wins at the awards, she will put the prize money - $3000 for the supreme winner - towards a trip
to England soon to sell jackets like her bridal design.

Style Pasifika director Stan Wolfgramm has been involved in the event for 12 years and says the standard of entries this year was the highest yet.

"Every year it gets better."

He says although the common theme is Pasifika, designers come from all walks of life.

"It's very much a reflection of how multicultural New Zealand is," he says.

The Westfield Style Pasifika Fashion Awards are held at Vector Arena tonight.

- © Fairfax NZ News