Amy Baker models her Fashion in the Field entry, entitled As Dark as Gold.

A striking black, bone and gold geometrically-patterned fabric spotted on a class trip to Auckland was the inspiration for EIT fashion student Amy Baker’s design for Fashion in the Field.

Amy and her classmates are entered in the Young Designer section of the Hawke’s Bay Racing Spring Carnival event, and all will be modelling their own creations.

The competition organisers stipulate that the entry must be created and not manufactured and the design stand out from the crowd on the runway.  The theme is avant garde.

The 19-year-year-old from Napier has designed her glamorous three-piece outfit to suit her body shape.  “I’m an inverted triangle,” she explains, “which means my shoulders are wider than my hips”.   

The hour glass in the back of her filmy cape gives the illusion of her body having the same shape and she’s added a double layer of feather trim closer to her neckline than the edges of her shoulders to visually narrow the silhouette.

Amy is building this year on skills she was introduced to at Tamatea High School, learning more about subjects such as pattern drafting that she will need working in the fashion industry.

“I enjoy it so much, definitely,” she says of EIT Certificate in Fashion Apparel studies – so much so, that she is now planning to progress to the New Zealand Diploma in Fashion programme, which will be offered at EIT for the first time next year.

“There are a few of us coming back, which is great because we are quite close.”

After graduating, Amy intends pursuing a career as a fashion designer.