Aspiring South Surrey designer Chelsea Cox has won a national competition – for a coat she designed and crafted from Cashmere bathroom tissue.
Cox, 23, was named winner of the White Cashmere Collection 2017 Student Design Competition Thursday evening in Toronto, where her design was among 16 selected from across the country to be showcased on the runway in an event at the Royal Ontario Museum.
“Standing out from the crowd of 16 inspiring finalists was Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Chelsea Cox who was named the winner of the 2017 Student Design Competition and a $4,000 bursary,” a news release issued Friday morning states.
“No fewer than 9,689 tubular beads – actually tiny hand-rolled strips of Cashmere bathroom tissue sealed with clear tape – yield the shimmery herringbone effect of Chelsea Cox’s update on the iconic Hudson’s Bay coat.”
Cox is a third-year student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design. She was among more than 150 students to enter the competition, which was judged by industry experts and staged to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research.
The competition challenged students to create couture using only Cashmere bathroom tissue. The theme was #Canada150, and the only additional colour they were allowed to add to their design submissions was breast-cancer pink.
Cox told Peace Arch News prior to leaving for the Toronto showcase that she chose to design a coat because she wanted to step outside her own comfort zone of practical fashion.
“I had to think outside of my own personal style,” she said.
One judge, Susan Langdon – executive director of Toronto Fashion Incubator – said she was “truly impressed by the depth and scope of design talent we saw from right across Canada.”
The panel chose Cox above the other entrants “because of her impeccable craftsmanship, technical proficiency and beautiful homage to our nation’s 150th birthday,” Langdon states in the news release.
