Meet the 15-Year-Old Student Who Designed an Award-Winning Outfit for Sia

This post is presented in partnership with Wool4School.

Sia’s got an elastic heart, and now, a new performance outfit designed by a 15-year-old student.

Alice Wang of St George Girls High School in Kogarah, NSW is the 2017 winner of the annual Wool4School design competition (Year 10 level) for her submission: an elegant ruffled tuxedo with matching head bow designed with Sia specifically in mind.

“I love her voice; so powerful,” Alice tells Student Edge.

“I felt she was an artist I could really use the style and personality of to create a design that could really reflect her.”

Alice’s passion for design didn’t begin with Sia, however.

“My mum is pretty good at textiles, so she was one of my first inspirations,” she explains.

“When I was younger, I used to love to draw. Then in high school, Textiles was a mandatory subject, and in Year 7 and Year 8 I really fell in love with it; just being able to draw these designs on paper and making them come to life by purchasing fabric and using different design techniques and textile techniques [was] amazing.”

She was encouraged by her Textiles teacher to enter the Wool4School competition, where budding fashion designers from years 7 to 12 are tasked with developing an outfit largely made up of Australian Merino wool.

“Our task this year was to create an outfit or garment for a musician of our choice, using Merino wool as our main fabric for the design,” she says.

“We had to draw up the design, annotate it, describing why we used or chose certain types of Merino wool, and we also had to create a mood board, which is like an inspiration page, and we also had to write a creative statement describing our design.”

Alice picked Sia, working off her “powerful” voice, “the way she holds herself,” and her “mysterious” stage presence.

“So, the clothing I made for her, with the shoulder pads in my design, was to reflect the power in her voice,” Alice explains.

“She likes to hide her face when she sings. So that mystery is reflected in my design with the black-and-white, monochrome colour palette.”

But Alice figured a woollen wig would have been “a bit difficult to make”, and probably not very comfortable.

“I was completely shocked and totally overjoyed when I found out that I’d won,” she says.

“Winning this award has allowed me an opportunity to see my garment be made by an Australian designer [Jonathan Ward], and I also get to have a photoshoot with a model wearing my design, and it’s going to be in Frankie magazine, so it opens up a lot of opportunities and experiences for me, and I’m really excited about it.”

But how would Alice feel if Sia ever saw her outfit? “I would be completely overjoyed and so excited and honoured if she saw the design.”

Turns out Sia can make big girls cry.

Congratulations to the 2017 Wool4School competition winners: Ella Neuwirth (Year 7), Camille Bates (Year 8), Sabrina Ward (Year 9), Hannah Jenkins (Year 11), Chanelle Davenport (Year 12) and Amy Kleindienst (Teacher Prize). For further information visit wool4school.com.

Photo: Supplied