DANCING has put young Victorian designer Melanie Steiszkal on a path that will take her from the south-west Victorian town of Hamilton all the way to Italy.
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The 19-year-old second year design student has won the Australasian Young Designers Award on her first attempt and on Sunday saw her business-inspired creation modelled at Hamilton’s Sheepvention expo.
Her two-piece outfit won her the prestigious Handbury trophy and attendance at a two-week course in fashion design at the famous fashion school Instituto Marangoni in Milan Italy valued at more than $10,000.
“I’ve always wanted to sew – I did dancing for 15 years and I did a lot of sewing in that.
“That was what made me really interested in the industry,” Melanie said.
“I did a few paid shows, but nothing too big, it was more just a hobby than anything else.
“I did tap, jazz ballet, a bit of everything.”
Melanie said she helped on the sewing machine with the dance costumes her mother made for her.
“So I think that is where it kind of started.”
Melanie’s two-piece outfit with jodhpur-inspired pants was the winner in the awards’ streetwear/sportswear section. The judges said her outfit showed innovative design detailing and use of wool with “forward thinking styling” and “well-executed technical application”.
“I called it a cape with exposed shoulders.
“So it is actually versatile you can wear it as a cape or have your arms through the holes,” she said.
Melanie said the garment was about 90 per cent wool as pure, fused and quilted wool fabric with some viscose and polyster-wool blend material.
Her inspiration for the outfit was “strictly business” and the “shapes and textures of contemporary architecture”.
