Channelling earth, water, fire and air, the Wool4School 2024 United Kingdom competition challenged students to take inspiration from natural elements to create designs of a minimum 70% wool.
Daisy Kelly received the highest award in the junior designer category of the Wool4School competition. Daisy’s final design combines fire and earth, taking inspiration from forest fires. The winning design features a wool blend evening dress with an intricate leaf-patterned bodice and a tiered skirt transitioning from light green hues to lush greens, bordered by charcoal shades and blazing orange.
As the junior student category winner, Daisy has won a suite of Wool4School prizes including a short course at the University of Arts London including 5 days accommodation and transport, an XP-PenGraphicTablet, a winner’s certificate and the winning design recreated into a 3D avatar. Daisy will be completing her course at UAL next week so stay tuned to hear how she gets on!
Daisy joined us for a conversation about all things Wool4School:
What made you enter the competition?
My textiles teacher at school initially introduced me to the competition and I had heard of Woolmark before so I was very intrigued at the idea. I have always wanted to work in the fashion industry so I was very excited to give it a go!
Can you explain your design?
As the theme for this year's competition was elements, I chose to focus on fire and earth. To combine the two, my design represents forest fires. I wanted my design to bring awareness of the damage that forest fires inflict on earth, and I hope my dress perfectly conveys this.
What was your favourite part of the competition?
My favourite part of the competition was the designing process and learning to overcome the challenges I faced while thinking of new ideas and transferring them into a design.
What are your thoughts on your win?
I am absolutely delighted that my design was picked to win this year's competition as I showed myself that my work leading up to the deadline paid off very well and I hope that it will open up new opportunities for me in the long run.
Advice for students taking part next year?
My advice for students entering next year's competition is to read the brief and mark scheme well as this can really help with understanding and coming up with ideas. I also found looking at past winners of the wool4school competition really useful as it showed the attention to detail and the things they had done that had helped them win.
Inspired by Daisy’s design? Register for Wool4School 2024/25 for your chance to win a suite of prizes to kickstart your design dreams.
