A Timaru resident has taken out a top spot at an Australian wearable arts competition.
Robyn Valentine’s creation ‘‘Life Sentence’’ took out the people’s choice award at the Australian Wearable Arts Festival 2025, which was held on the Sunshine Coast last month.
Mrs Valentine said the piece was created from discarded wedding gowns and veils, plastic strappings from Bunnings timberyard and an old candlewick bedspread, dyed and knotted.
She said the piece reflected how life’s perfect dreams often unravelled.
Wedding gowns were deconstructed and the fabrics distressed, dyed and textured to represent the emotional turbulence of love and life ‘‘with its intoxicating highs, and the heartache of its inevitable lows’’.
Mrs Valentine said the competition was limited to 40 entries, so just to make it as a finalist into the competition was a fantastic achievement in itself.
‘‘I was competing against some very accomplished artists from Australia and around the world.’’
One of those artists was Grace Duval from the United States, who was the supreme award winner of the 2024 World of Wearable Arts competition.
Mrs Valentine said across the festival’s four shows there was the opportunity for each designer and model to mingle with the audience.
‘‘We were just blown away by all the positive comments we received, and so many said ‘this is my absolute favourite’.’’
Despite the feedback from the crowd, she said she and daughter Sophie, who was modelling the creation, were both blown away when her name was called for the peoples’ choice award.
‘‘We both just stood there with our mouths open in disbelief.’’
‘‘Somehow, we were pushed out on to the stage. It felt like an out-of-body experience walking down that runway with all the audience applauding.
‘‘I am still on a high.’’
She was thankful to her daughter for modelling the garment so beautifully.
‘‘She put a spell on the audience for sure.’’
The garment will be on display at the Art in Motion event to be held in the Caroline Bay Hall in Timaru later this month.
While tickets for the event had sold out, organisers have managed to increase the amount of tickets available.
The event will be held on September 27; the matinee show is at 1pm and the evening show and prizegiving at 7pm.
