Apple of a design a winner

DONNA WALSH/Waikato Times

A-PEELING APPAREL: Erin Slee, left, models the apple creation of successful designer Lauren Briffault at the ReStyle 09 awards.

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When it came to the crunch, Lauren Briffault's apple-inspired design appealed the most.

The Hamilton designer's outfit a dress made from apple peels and shorts made up of 1000 apple stickers took took top honours at the Restyle 09 awards.

But the outfit almost did not appear on the Founders Theatre catwalk on Saturday night.

"I started about 2 1/2 weeks before the show and was staying up until midnight most nights," Miss Briffault said.

She began working on her creation less than three weeks ago and even took time off from her job at city store Nes to complete it.

Restyle 09, formerly the Trash to Fashion Awards, attracted about 120 entries this year. Organisers described the event as television show Project Runway meets World of Wearable Arts.

Miss Briffault said her outfit, An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away, came from noticing how often an apple appeared in storytelling.

"It's everywhere, from Adam and Eve, to Snow White to William Tell. And from there I just went with the `apple a day' idea."

She lost count of how long it took to create the garments, but covering the shoes in Pacific Rose apple peels alone took more than three hours.

"A lot of people thought I was crazy, they couldn't figure it out, but I knew I could do it. I wanted to try something that would really challenge me."

Miss Briffault convinced best friend Erin Slee to model the outfit after custom designing it to fit her. The nurse's hat and most of the dress, held up with velcro, are made from Pacific Rose apples, and the dress trim detail is made from Granny Smith peels. Each piece of peel was dried, trimmed then stuck together.

- © Fairfax NZ News