Vision takes shape for designer

MARION VAN DIJK

TAILORED LOOK: Fashion designer Bobby-Lee Wadsworth has launched her own label in Nelson.

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Creating new shapes for the body through tailoring and design is an element of fashion design that fascinates Bobby-Lee Wadsworth.

The 22-year-old launched her label, Bobby-Lee Designs, in Nelson this month and says she just loves the way clothes can change or enhance a body's outline and shape.

"I do a lot of tailoring, that's the area I want to get into," she says.

Her love of creating different silhouettes for the body is part of the reason she likes designing bridal dresses, but she also loves tailored winter jackets and dresses.

"Winter is my season," she says.

Miss Wadsworth is based in an industrial space "inside and above" Moreland Fabrics, previously Fabric Barn, in Vanguard St, Nelson, and has transformed a neglected industrial space into her studio and shop.

She sews curtains for the shop and creates wedding dresses and does other tailoring for clients.

When The Nelson Mail visited, a purple and green joker outfit a client had requested for a Halloween costume hung on a rack, demonstrating the variety of clothes she creates.

The curtains, wedding dresses and commissions for clients are "a great fallback" as she starts out on her own, but also mean she is kept busy juggling her time working for others and making her own designs.

Her 2010 summer range includes her signature bias-cut dresses and "cute little summer dresses", skirts, bomber jackets and skinny jeans, she says.

While she's just starting out and doesn't yet have a large range of stock and sizes, she is able to make different sizes on demand and can personalise clothes to clients' wishes.

The Otago Polytech fashion and design graduate has also had her designs selected for the World of WearableArt Awards and her creations feature in a newly published book on the art event.

Miss Wadsworth says she's happy she's taken the plunge and launched her own label.

"It's daunting; it's happening so fast. I wasn't expecting all this attention."

- © Fairfax NZ News