Anna Westcott

Anna Westcott

Sydney TAFE Fashion Design Studio student Anna Westcott is the clear winner of the 2008 Dylon Colour Award, due to her flamboyantly sculptural outfit inspired by traditional Japanese arts.

With the trend for dyeing having had a resurgence on the catwalks of Spring/Summer 2008, the students’ brief for the Dylon award fits very well among the international fashion houses. This is a great example of the support and recognition young Australian designers are receiving to help them get onto the career ladder in what is a notoriously tough industry.

Anna Westcott is a 22 year old from Lindfield, she impressed judges with her structured creation, beating 53 other first year students to the award and a share in the cash prize.

In an explosion of colour, creations akin to every tribe imaginable were dreamed up for the 'Painted Faces' brief. Anna's design was closely followed by a moody interpretation of clown culture by Angelina Anderson (18 from St Ives) who took second place. A vibrant adaptation of the African Maasai tribe by Christina Rodi (23 from Frenchs Forest) took third. As the 15th anniversary of the Dylon Colour Award, it's fair to say that the competition was as tough as ever this year.

The outfit was time consuming but this didn’t deter Anna and her vision. The fabric of the top has been dyed, and then dye was thickened to create paint that could be used to paint eyes of the Kabuki actors. The effect on the pants comes from three different dye techniques and a kilo of wax for the final batik. With a passion for design, Anna loves to explore the fine details and structure of things for inspiration; creating garment styles that are a balance between structured and sensual.

Anna wanted to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become an artist, studying art at the College of Fine Arts, but this wasn’t enough creativity, so she became a student at Sydney TAFE studying Fashion and Design.

Alex Perry, Akira Isogawa, Michelle Jank and Nicky Nimmermann are but a few big names to have graduated from Sydney TAFE Fashion Design Studio.

Dylon has been a major sponsor of the Fashion Design Studio since 1994 and has seen winners of this award go on to become very successful in Australia's fashion industry. Dion Lee who showed his first collection at Australian Fashion Week in Spring/Summer 2008 was highly commended for this award in 2005. Michelle Robinson was a winner of the award in 2001 and set up her own label in 2004, as did Honey Hartley, who came third in 2002. The 2002 winner, Luke Sales, went on to become one half of the label Romance Was Born with is fellow TAFE graduate Anna Plunkett.