Some kinda country
Melissa Mahony is getting used to acting humble in victory.
Nine months ago Mahony leapt onto the awards treadmill when she took out both the Fashion Student Designer of the Year and Young Wool Designer of the Year gongs at the inaugural Australian Masters of Fashion Awards.
It was around this time the ambitious designer opted to give up even more of her precious spare time by accepting the role of Sydney/Melbourne fashion editor of burgeoning consumer fashion magazine Fashion Trend.
But it was at The Australian Wool Fashion Awards (TAWFA), staged in the New England capital of Armidale last month, where the 29-year-old really came into her own.
Competing against an impressive field of more than 140 student and semi-professional designers, Mahony quietly yet confidently took to the stage no less than three times to take home a trifecta of glamour titles in the eveningwear, bridalwear and racewear categories.
The high profile judges for this event - which included The Australian Women's Weekly junior fashion editor Clementine O'Hara, Sportscraft designer Michael Perri, Merino Country managing director Kerrie Richards and Herringbone marketing manager Susie Thompson - collectively described Mahony's pieces as "elegant". While event organiser Liz Foster declared her silver butterfly wedding gown a "personal favourite". Two days after the awards, she was approached by fabric manufacturer Kyabra, who has asked her to collaborate on a new collection.
Not a bad achievement for a student designer who has yet to complete her final year training at RMIT.
But this, argues Foster, is what TAWFA is all about.
Foster, who has been at the helm of the awards almost since its inception in 1981, says she feels an incredible sense of pride at watching young designers flourish through the Australian Wool Innovation-sponsored program.
With up to 18 titles up for grabs, the award's lucrative prize list ranges from cash incentives to full or partial scholarships and placements with some of the country's leading fashion designers.
Boasting a desire to educate and encourage young designers in the qualities of wool, TAWFA entrants are enticed to use their creative flair to demonstrate the versatility's of wool and wool blends with the rules stipulating each entry must use a minimum 40 per cent merino wool content.
Traditionally one of the award's most popular sub-categories is in the area of donated fabric design with this year's blends including seacells and soybean.
And while this year's entrants continued to lift in the bar in terms of standard and innovation, Foster says what was most gratifying from her end was the fact that 80 of the designers who entered the award's 2007 installment were first time entrants - including Mahony.
"From a personal level I get a huge satisfaction seeing young designers win awards - not just the monetary prizes but scholarships and work experience with established designers, helping them climb the tough ladder to becoming a designer."
But while the awards are over for another year neither Mahony nor Foster have had time to sit back and reflect on their success.
While Mahony is now busy gearing up for the September launch of her new label "Grace has wings', Foster too is keeping busy, having showed 13 of the garments from this year's event at the Sydney Easter Show.
She will now head back to Armidale where she will send other garments to field days and conferences across all corners of Australia and in July package several garments for a journey to Mexico to a sheep and wool congress.
"The requests come from unexpected organisations and where possible I send a selection, so many other potential entrants and consumer can see what can be done with our wonderful wool."