A Year 12 Girton Grammar student has been selected to have her original designs displayed at an upcoming exhibition.
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Milly Fletcher, 18, designed garments for her VCE product design and technology subject, and will be part of the annual Top Designs exhibition at the Melbourne Museum.
She said she came out of the cinema with four of her friends one day when she saw the email notifying her that she was chosen for Top Designs.
"I was really happy," Milly said.
"It was a long process.
"I wasn't really expecting to get in just because I figured so many people must have applied because it's all around Victoria."
Milly said there was a chance she wouldn't have been considered for the opportunity because she applied late to the program.
To enter Top Designs, students must have completed an eligible subject and achieved an A or A+ grade, among other criteria.
The selection process involved a panel of teachers viewing, shortlisting, and choosing the final collections.
For fairness, applications were de-identified by the panel.
Milly's school didn't have enough students enrolled to offer the product design and technology unit, so she undertook the folio subject by distance education.
The young student said she got into fashion accidentally when she chose textiles in year seven and product design in year nine.
"I just always preferred more of the creative subjects rather than science and maths," she said.
Milly had two fashion inspirations.
The first, her elderly neighbor Denise, who sewed and used to make wedding dresses.
"Denise, my neighbour, she was always there to help me out," Milly said.
The second inspiration was her friend who was a climate activist passionate about sustainability.
"My friend, she's a climate activist, so she's really environmentally conscious and I wanted to make her outfit for a photo shoot thing that she had coming up," she said.
"So I designed my garment, a semi-formal one heavily based on sustainability, so she would have something sustainable to wear."
The fashionista even used avocados to naturally dye the fabrics and used other scraps of material she had to make it more sustainable.
"Mainly, I relied on Google to try and find all the sewing techniques I needed," Milly said.
"And that was difficult."
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Milly's mother Emma Fletcher was impressed by her daughter's achievements.
"She did a fantastic job teaching herself."
Milly said she wanted to pursue a career in design or fashion.
"I definitely want do something creative and I think I'm leaning towards fashion just because I've always liked the whole process of being able to actually build something, some kind of end product and for it to be usable," she said.
Emma encouraged her daughter's creativity and ambitions.
"I think she can achieve whatever she sets out to do," she said.
"I think she should go for it."
The Top Designs exhibition will be held at Melbourne Museum, and opens Saturday April 2, and closes Sunday, July 10.
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