Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Teen seeks tasty end with fairytale fashion

Fashion designer Alexander McQueen was the inspiration for an edible Little Red Riding Hood outfit, designed by Flaxmere's Hemi Wong for this year's Edible Fashion Awards on Saturday.

"The theme is Magical Mystery so I have gone for a Red Riding Hood theme," Mr Wong said.

Mr Wong won the competition last year with his Elephant Saviour garment made from mushrooms, figs, dates, popcorn and rice.

This time the centrepiece of his design will be a red cape, with a simple net dress underneath.

"The idea of having a dress made out of net is so it will look as though the food is on her body."

This is the fourth year Mr Wong has entered the awards, and he's learnt much from past experience working with difficult mediums.

"The last outfit had about 100 mushrooms and I used my grandmother's dehydrator so they would last longer, but after the competition they deteriorated pretty much right away.

"This year I have gone for dried food, I have been to the Asian markets a lot and I have tried to stay away from lollies - for the first two years that is what I used and I found they are a lot harder to work with."

This year may be Mr Wong's last in the competition, as he is taking a gap year before hopefully heading to Otago University to study medicine.

"Doing this is a bit of time out for me, it's a way to relax I started out in soft tech class at school and here I am entering again."

While he has high hopes of making the finals, Mr Wong says part of the fun is seeing other people's designs.

The Pak'nSave Hastings Edible Fashion Awards 2011 will be held at the Hawke's Bay Opera House in Hastings on Saturday.

Junior and intermediate designers will be shown from 10am, with senior students and adult designers from 2pm.

Tickets for the daytime shows: Adults $5, children $2.50 at the door.

Evening Extravaganza, 7pm: Family pass $47, adults $20, $15 students and 65+ , $10 children under 12. Tickets available from TicketDirect, phone 0800 224 224. AMY SHANKS | Wednesday, April 6, 2011 9:59

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