Myer Fashions On Your Front Lawn competition winner takes title with dress made from plastic document folders

A Brisbane designer has been crowned a national fashion winner for a striking design made out of plastic document folders from Officeworks.

A Brisbane designer has been crowned a national fashion winner for a striking design made out of plastic document folders from Officeworks.

Bethany Cordwell, 25, who works in the costume department for Queensland Ballet, won the emerging designer award on Tuesday as part of the Victorian Racing Club’s Myer Fashions On Your Front Lawn competition.

Her winning design featured 20,000 hand-tooled, teardrop-shaped scales, which were cut from reflective plastic document folders and individually sewn together in layers to create a unique texture that caught the eye of the national judging panel.

“I really like using materials you wouldn’t usually associate with fashion or clothing, or being worn,” Ms Cordwell said.

“I used to work at Officeworks at university so I’d always look around at the different materials and wonder what I could do with them.”

Bethany Cordwell has won the emerging designer award on Tuesday as part of the Victorian Racing Club’s Myer Fashions On Your Front Lawn competition.

Ms Cordwell, of Everton Park in Brisbane’s northside, spent around two months creating the dress and matching headpiece, predominantly during lockdown last year, which she said gave her purpose “when everything else dropped from under our feet”.

Having always been creative, Ms Cordwell moved to Brisbane from Mackay to study design and fashion at QUT, before graduating in 2018 and working full time with the Queensland Ballet this year.

With dreams to one day run her own design house, she has already designed for the likes of singer Dami Im.

As part of her winning prize, she will be featured in an advertorial in Vogue Australia worth $14,300 as well as a holiday to Sofitel Melbourne and a four-week loan of a luxury Lexus car.

“It’s just incredible. It’s that next big thing that is really going to help me reach a new audience,” Ms Cordwell said.

“It’s a massive goal of mine to be in Vogue so to do that at 25 is amazing.”

A model shows off Bethany Cordwell’s dress.

The accompanying headpiece

Originally published as Myer Fashions On Your Front Lawn competition winner takes title with dress made from plastic document folders