Tegan Rose Vickery

Tegan’s Honours year has been an epic one. First, she hit the headlines for taking the top prize at the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards with a glamorous, oversized mandarin-orange trouser suit and silk blouse.

“I call it my body dysmorphia suit,” she smiles. “I created it as a reflection on some of my own life experiences, and finding a safe outlet from people’s comments about my body by wearing oversized clothes.”

Next, Tegan organised a successful charity fashion show at Dunedin’s Wall Street Mall, which raised funds for the Life Matters Suicide Trust.

As well as showcasing Tegan’s designs, the event also featured those of two fellow emerging designers and OP graduates, Lucy Girvan and Katherine Inder.

“I was due to show my collection at New Zealand Fashion Week 2024, but unfortunately it was cancelled, so I thought I’d organise a show in Dunedin instead. It started as a joke at first, but then it spiralled,” she laughs.

All the while, Tegan was busy studying too. She really appreciated the high level of creative freedom she enjoyed while studying Fashion at OP, and describes her lecturers as “amazing and so supportive”.

As well as designing made-to-measure bridal wear, Tegan is passionate about creating ready-to-wear fashion garments in sizes 4 through to 30 – a task that requires specialist grading and patternmaking skills.

“I’ve been fortunate to gain insights and guidance from Tara Viggo, another OP graduate who is a grading expert and has her own patternmaking business, Paper Theory Patterns,” she says.

Tegan explains one of the many advantages of studying at OP is the opportunity for networking, given the number of successful Fashion graduates who maintain close connections to the institute and its lecturers – including Professor Margo Barton.

“Margo is amazing – everyone in the Fashion industry knows and loves her!”

Margo speaks highly of Tegan too, and says it’s been “an absolute pleasure” to watch her develop over her years at OP.

“One of the many things that impresses me about Tegan is that she is always thinking about the individual wearer,” Margo says. “She has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and her clothes look fantastic on all sizes – you can see models feel amazing in her garments as well.”

Margo notes it’s a complex task to make the same garment in an extensive range of sizes, and one that requires specialist grading skills.

“Tegan is focused, committed to excellence and achieves highly. Her future is really bright – there’s no stopping her, and I can’t wait to see what she does next."

Right now, Tegan is working on plans to create a shared studio space in Dunedin for Fashion graduates and other creatives, where they can make and sell their work as a collective.

“Community is so important in creative fields like fashion,” she says. “I’ve benefitted from this during my time at OP, and now I feel like it’s my turn to give back and support other emerging creatives.”