Designer Wins DHL Fashion Challenge

Cardboard couture was the name of the game at World Mastercard Fashion Week in Toronto.

The concept was unusual but the mandate clear: use your talents to design and build an outfit comprised entirely of packing materials. Berlin-based designer Michalsky had done so, creating high-end eveningwear made of bubble-wrap, packaging tape and boxes.

But in Toronto in October 2013, the brains behind the cardboard outfits on display at World Mastercard Fashion Week were all new hands at couture creation. As entrants in the DHL Fashion Challenge, a scholarship competition held in cooperation with George Brown College, dozens of fashion students displayed their skills and design knowledge by creating courier couture with only minimal materials.

Adam Taubenfligel, designer for Triarchy denim and one of the judges, said the competition provided a way for students to show their creativity.

“There is a lot you can hide behind a sewing machine,” he said.

Design Stephan Caras said the same when speaking at an industry seminar sponsored by DHL. “You can’t learn to be a designer. You either have it or you don’t.”

And the winner is…

 From the looks of her entry in the competition, 28-year-old Nagalakshmi Deepak certainly has it. Influenced by French couture, specifically Dior’s 2007 collection, Deepak created the winning piece, a complex layered gown that belied the materials used in its construction.

Thanks to the win, Deepak got the chance to get a look at what goes on behind the scenes at Fashion Week as she shadowed the designer from Triarchy during a day of shows.

“I would never have thought packing slips would get me into Fashion Week,” she told the Toronto Star. “I think it’s really a dream.”