Four years of hard work are beginning to pay off for Nazdar Polos after she was chosen to design an evening gown for the secretary of the state Education and Training Department to wear to the Victorian Training Awards.
The Roxburgh Park resident was chosen from a pool of Victorian TAFE fashion students who responded to the department’s request for creative designs for a dress for secretary Gill Callister.
Ms Polos, who studies at Broadmeadows’ Kangan Institute, designed a dress incorporating tulle, lace, silk and hand beading. It took three weeks to make the dress, which has 30 metres of fabric.
“A lot of work went into it. I hand-dyed the fabric,” said Ms Polos, who is in the final months of an advanced diploma of applied fashion design and technology, having previously completed a certificate and diploma in fashion as well as two years of language classes. She arrived in Australia from Iraq in 2007 as a refugee.
Ms Polos says she dreams of opening an eveningwear and bridal business, incorporating designs that reflect her culture. “I love fashion,” she says. “In my culture, we use a lot of embellishments and embroidery; that’s been an inspiration as I create my evening dresses.”
