EIT student Tory Tiopira did better than make the cut in this year’s Hokonui Fashion Design Awards with an entry inspired by plastic surgery and body image.

Aiming only to gain entry into the prestigious event, the second-year student was “shocked” to win second place in the avant garde section, competing against designers and other fashion design students nationwide.

Last year, Tory suffered two major setbacks – he was hospitalised for three weeks with pneumonia and then his design was not accepted into the Cult Couture awards held in Auckland.
This year, with his health fully restored, the EIT fashion design student’s aim was to have his outfit accepted into the Hokonui event. He couldn’t have been more surprised to learn he was runner-up in the open section of the avant garde class for a garment that “talks” about a woman going under the knife.

The basic silhouette for the main dress is achieved using a white stiffening fabric material that gives the garment shape and evokes a hospital gown. Wool stitching on the front represents the marks made on a patient about to undergo breast enlargement and a tummy tuck.

“I asked 30 people what they didn’t like about their bodies and two-thirds said their lips,” Tory says. “So the upturned collar hides most of the model’s face while also suggesting a surgical mask.”

The asymmetrical back represents the post-operative body – one that will never be the same again.

One side of the bodice is pintucked to show “scarring”. The pleat down the centre back represents the vertebrae and the tab securing the back waist alludes to the plastic bracelet used to identify a hospital patient.

Tory says the rubbery material used for the undergarment is like the latex of a surgeon’s gloves.
The words “Imperfection” and “I’mperfection” have been screen-printed onto the upper back of the dress.

“It’s a two-way thing – people like and don’t like their bodies.”

The idea for the entry woke him at four in the morning.

“I must have dreamt about it. I got up and started doing some sketches. It just suddenly came to me and I went with that design.”

Tory laboured over his entry, making four toiles rather than the usual one sample garment required of the students, experimenting with different stiffening fabrics and reworking seams.
Even now, he feels ambivalent about the piece but admits he does set himself high standards.
Looking ahead, the 29-year-old is hoping his future will encompass all his professional interests – fashion design, of course, as well as using his training in dance and teaching. Whether that will allow him to stay close to his family in Flaxmere remains an unknown.

“I absolutely love Hawke’s Bay and it is closer to family for me to be here for another couple of years but it’s also about finding work.”

Tory’s success topped a good year for EIT in the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards.

The competition attracted a record 300 entries, but only 200 were judged. Programme coordinator Christina Rhodes says all 11 of the Certificate in Fashion Apparel students had their entries accepted. The winner of the Denim Award, Anna van Hartizsch of Napier, graduated from EIT with the original one-year certificate in 2005.