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Roy Holmes Award for Fun and Comfortable Range

Roy Holmes Award for Fun and Comfortable Range

Elaine Mulder scored the Roy Holmes Award at the 2014 DUT Fashion Show finale on Friday last week (3 October 2014).

Held at the University’s Fred Crookes Sport Centre, DUT Steve Biko Campus, the finale saw the top 15 (out of 30) contenders battling it out on the runway for a win in the competition’s top five winning categories, namely: Most Innovative Range, Most Commercial Range, The Roy Holmes Award, Best Range on Show and Best Technical Student.

With blogging being a useful tool for designers to research what is trending at street level, and how their clothes are being interpreted, this year’s Fashion Show was themed BLOG THIS BEESH.

The Roy Holmes Award replaced the Best Menswear Range category, with the winner of this award having to create a collection that related to the Holmes Brothers brand.

The Holmes Brothers brand has successfully participated in SA Fashion Week over a number of years and has been featured in Drapers Record London, Elle US edition, Nylon USA and Collezione Sport and Street Europe. The brand is essentially a young men’s and ladies’ fashion collection of products and accessories. Best known for their t-shirts, which take a quirky look at SA culture, the brand has a young fashion flavour that represents the multi-cultural demographic of our nation to the core.

While conceptualising her range, Mulder said she wanted it to be comfortable and wearable, thus her use of knits in terms of fabric. Because she also has “fun” with working with her hands, Mulder also used appliqué (ornamental needlework in which pieces of fabric are sewn or stuck on to a larger piece to form a picture or pattern) to decorate her garments.

“I wanted my range to be something that I would wear and to reflect who I am. I’m bubbly but a little bit reserved at times, and you can see that in the range. There’s grey and a pop of colour which is quite unexpected. It was all about fun, play and appliqué,” said Mulder.

Mulder’s range had eight garments in total and, according to the aspirant designer, was put together in a relatively short time despite some challenges. “I struggle to sew, I don’t enjoy it as much as I should and I think I’m nervous of the sewing machine. I prefer to sit and knit, but I’m getting there. By the end of this range, I gained a lot more confidence and was more comfortable in my own skin,” she said.

Mulder was excited to win the award, saying that she plans to get into the fashion industry straight away, which will be possible after she was announced as a finalist in next year’s Africa Fashion International (AFI) Fasttrack programme; a national fashion design development platform that aims to nurture and develop South Africa’s young and dynamic designers.

In the programme, designers are offered an opportunity to “fast track” their careers through intensive mentorship, business development coaching and mentorship for future success.
“I want to get straight into the industry. I want to work, enter every competition and get my name out there,” she said.

Having had worked for local award-winning designer Karen Monk-Klijnstra as a personal assistant for a year, Mulder added that she’d also like to “have it all” one day.

“She Karen Monk-Klijnstra inspires me. She actually introduced me to the fashion industry. She did SA Fashion Week and I saw a lot of things that she did. Her use of colour and her unexpectedness is something I really admire. I also admire the fact that she has four kids and she juggles it all. I’d like to be like that, have it all,” she quipped.

-Noxolo Memela and Sinegugu Ndlovu

Pictured: Elaine Mulder’s collection which scooped this year’s (2014) Roy Holmes Award at the 2014 DUT Fashion Show finale on Friday last week (3 October 2014).

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