Designer inspired by hairy turn of events for UCOL show | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Greek gods, Jamaican dance-hall and moustaches are not concepts usually found in the same sentence.

But they have been brought together as some of the inspirations behind Whanganui UCOL's third-year Bachelor of Fashion students' project.

The 10 students were busy frantically finishing off their three-piece collections this week in time for yesterday's final critique by their tutors, and in preparation for the opening of their annual exhibition on Monday.

Able to choose and research any theme that inspired them, the vision behind the students' work ranged from ballet to dinosaurs to suits of armour.

Hannah Blackburn, 22, took her inspiration from men's moustaches - particularly those depicted in portraits from 1850-1920.

The moustache, she said, was one of those things that changed someone's identity and added elegance and charm.

"I wanted to play with that and use it to make things that are really suave and fancy," she said.

In keeping with the idea of skin, her collection incorporates a lot of suede, and stays within the black, brown and red colour palette on white, drawing from the idea of men's white dress shirts.

Keeping with her theme of making the moustache fun and ladylike, her collection was called "Miss Stache", she said.

Candice Kauri, 20, took her inspiration from dance-hall fashion in Jamaica, but infused the traditionally revealing style with the more modest doctors' scrubs.

While it sounds an unlikely pairing, in Jamaica there were signs in the hospitals asking visitors to cover up before they saw the doctors, so she took her inspiration for modesty from there.

Sade Ngatai, 26, looked to Mt Olympus for her inspiration, drawing on the idea of Athena, goddess of war and wisdom.

She was a character of many qualities, and that appealed to her, she said.

Her garments incorporated the idea of strong shoulder silhouettes and a lot of pleating and tucks, as opposed to draping, she said.

An exhibition of the students' work will be held in the Federal Gallery on the corner of Taupo Quay and Drews Ave.

Monday's opening night is invitation only, as the tutors will be finishing off their marking, but the collection will be open to the public from next Tuesday to Friday, 11am to 2pm.

Following the exhibition, students will each choose one piece from their collection to enter into Fashion Quarterly's Young Designer of the Year competition.