With a perfect fashion designer name and plenty of ideas about the clothes he wanted to make, Sebastian gained the skills he needed by studying EIT’s Certificate in Fashion Apparel.
Some of Sebastian’s fashion visions won prizes at last year’s Gisborne A & P Show.
“I’ve always done art and been a very creative person. I was involved in the first Tairāwhiti graffiti exhibition. I had taken sewing at school because I was interested in learning how to make my own clothes. I was doing art, photography, design, graffiti, and it all just channelled into fashion. This year of study became the next stage, it felt natural.”
Sebastian Pedrioli wanted help to be able to create clothes he imagined.
Initially enrolled at university in Wellington to study design, he found it wasn’t for him.
“It wasn’t very centralised. I didn’t have much time with the lecturers and no one really seemed to care about who you were and what you did – not
in a ‘look at my work!’ way but in a sharing with the teacher way. I like that style of learning.”
After finishing Year 13 at Lytton High School, Sebastian enrolled in a free two-day taster course in fashion at EIT – an overview of the Certificate in Fashion Apparel he has now completed.
When he returned from Wellington he bumped into EIT fashion tutor Sarah Blair in the supermarket and she put him in touch with EIT pathway facilitator Ziggy Gorczynski who helped arrange his Youth Guarantee scholarship. Suddenly he felt back on track.
“I am really grateful to Sarah and Ziggy because I was – not in a bad place – but feeling a bit lost. You know how you come out of school and you think
you’ll go to uni and life will take off? I felt like I was in a well and nothing had happened for me. I started the programme in February and I haven’t looked back since. I’ve loved it to bits.”
“Combining all those things is really important and this programme has given me very strong foundations in all of them. I probably should have done this the first time around. I finally got out of ‘what am I doing with my life?’ Now I can make clothes to a high standard. Seeing a garment finished brings me serious joy.”