Held on Friday and Saturday nights, the WoolOn fashion event held at The Canyon at Tarras, near Bendigo, showcased breathtaking creativity in garments using a minimum of 75% wool in their construction. Julie Asher talks to entrant Viv Tamblyn, of Gore.
Passionate about anything to do with fashion, Gore fashion designer and creator Viv Tamblyn found entering WoolOn to be a logical move.
This year’s event was a far cry from Mrs Tamblyn’s first time entering WoolOn in 2009, when it was held in a marquee in Pioneer Park, in Alexandra.
"It’s such a fun event and the people are wonderful," she said.
She won the supreme award in 2017 with A Touch of Copper, a five-piece ensemble made from 100% wool featuring an oversized vest, bralette, pants, jersey and beanie.
The off-the-shoulder jersey was hand-knitted and painted with splashes of copper.
The oversized vest and the beanie were also hand-knitted.
The following year she won the streetwear section with Perfect in Pink, a knitted coat, with her daughter Andre Johnson winning the supreme award that year.
Wool’s versatility made it wonderful to work with, Mrs Tamblyn said.
"You can do so much, so many different things with 100% wool fabric.
"I love the new fine wool fabrics coming up.
"They’re soft, they flow, they move when you walk.
"As a yarn, it’s limitless what you can do with textures and colour combinations."
After each event she took a couple of months off, then she was back into planning and creating for the next year.
Designs often evolved, and she had been known to undo a finished item and start again.
She said it could be a fine line between being too avant garde with a design and not being original enough.
Each year there were different judges and it was hard to know what they would be looking for.
It was important to be happy with what you had created yourself and learn to take criticism from the judges.
"It took a while to learn that."
2023 results
Supreme award: Jane Avery
Supreme award runner-up: Vince Ropitini
Second runner-up: Lucy Dolan Kang
Handcrafted : Laurel Judd
Avant garde: Laurel Judd
Toi tu ki uruuruwhenua: Jenny Cairns
Streetwear: Kay Lochiel
Sustainable wool : Lucy Dolan-Kane
Menswear: Becs Calder
Technical: Laurel Judd
Novice: Frankie Alexander-Kemble
Young designer under-23: Tom Conway
Emerging designer school award and special occasion category: Isabella Miscisco, 17, of Cromwell.
