Sewing runs in 11-year-old Essjay Bennett’s family.
The Rotorua boy and his mother, Angela Doherty, have won the guest designer spot at the Dress for Success Fashion show: Through the Ages show, hosted by Vanish at AUT on June 22.
There they will showcase Essjay’s designs which he says are based on anime.
“My inspiration for this look,” Essjay says, pointing to an upcycled dinner jacket with rivets down the lapel that he’d hand-pressed himself, “is one of the suits I’ve seen in an anime called Naruto”.
“For this line, we’re using a bunch of jackets and things that look more like a type of suity-anime and, I like it that way,” Bennett says.
Kharl WiRepa is an influence, says Essjay, “and Alexander McQueen”.
Doherty says sewing is a family trait.
“I learned from my mum, she was either sewing or working.”
She and her son enjoy perusing local secondhand shops for inspiration together. While they enjoy hunting for bargains, Doherty says some shops are expensive and priced as if they were brand-new clothes, but “there’s the ones where you can go in with a bag, give them $5 and fill it up; they’re really good”.
“When we both go shopping, we look for patterns, random stuff that we can use, I get a lot of denim and things like that with mine, he likes silky stuff.”
Doherty is a teacher is Essjay’s school, Ngongotahā Primary, and she’s helping raise funds to take a team to Auckland for the show.
They’re planning to take eight models up with them.
“I like supporting our kids, I always have,” Doherty says.
Essjay’s role model Kharl WiRepa, who runs his high-end fashion brand and the Miss Rotorua Foundation, told the Rotorua Daily Post he is “extremely impressed” with Essjay.
“Anyone that wants to go into the fashion industry needs to understand what their look is, what the theme is, what their energy and their vibe represents and that is what makes you stand out from everybody else in the industry, and he knows what his aesthetic is,” WiRepa said.
Doherty says teaching children to sew their own clothes empowers them.
“Simple things like what you’re wearing can help lift your ahua for the day and, for me, lifting people up is what we’re all about. [Essjay] is the same with that, he loves helping people.”
Doherty says her son’s win helped her realise “instead of dressing kids I could help teach them to dress themselves”, which she does through her Ngongotahā-based business Kiddiewinks.
“Initially upcycling came to me because I can buy cheaper, make the clothes, and sell them cheaper as opposed to buying hundreds of dollars worth of fabric.
“I want to help the kids that need a bit more help with self-image and things like that.”
For Essjay’s trip to AUT in June, the family have set up a Givealittle page.
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