When Opposites Collide - Op Shop to Fashion Show | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

It was a case of it's in the bag for Rotorua's Aroha Tapsell with her winning creation Kalisi - an old flight carry-on bag she transformed into a dress.

The second-year Diploma in Fashion Technology student at Waiariki Institute of Technology won the overall title at When Opposites Collide - the Op Shop to Fashion Show on Friday night.

The Rotorua Community Hospice Trust and Waiariki Institute of Technology established the show in which contestants buy a garment from any Bay of Plenty Hospice shop and alter it into a runway design. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Rotorua Community Hospice.

Miss Tapsell's piece, entitled Kalisi, was made out of a brown vinyl carry-on bag that was made in the 1970s.

She bought the bag, a Qantas label still attached, from the Hospice shop in Rotorua and it took her about 12 hours to turn it into a piece of fashion modelled by a contestant in last year's New Zealand's Next Top Model Jamie Himiona.

Miss Tapsell named her outfit Kalisi after the Queen of the Dragons, a character in a favourite television mini-series Game of Thrones.

For her efforts she won a $250 voucher from Bossy B, a $250 voucher from Footloose and a sewing machine from Bernina. She also won $5000 towards a year of study towards the Diploma of Fashion Technology but said she wouldn't be able to use it as she had finished the course. She also won the People's Choice Award - a $100 voucher from Rotorua hair salon High Lights.

It has been a busy year for Miss Tapsell, whose work went on show at New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland and also as part of the Real New Zealand Festival in Wellington.

As for the fate of Kalisi? It will be put on display in the Rotorua Community Hospice shop.

Meanwhile, the trust's funding and development manager Jan Morgan said the event was likely to become an annual one.

She was not sure how much money was raised as it was still being counted. However, she said Bay of Plenty Hospice relied on fundraising and its hospice shop for funding. It cost $500,000 a year to run the hospice.

Mrs Morgan said businesses donated services to the evening, which was held at the Van Dykes building, 1238 Pukuatua St, and use of the venue was free.

"A lot of generous people donated a lot of stuff to help make as much money as they could for hospice which we appreciate."