Coffs Coast High Schoolers Headed to Perth for Australian Eco Fashion Week

Two Bishop Druitt College HSC Textiles students have achieved a major milestone for the Coffs Coast, becoming the first students in the school’s history selected to showcase their work at Eco Fashion Week Australia (EFWA).

Year 12 BDC Coffs high school students Amelie Carpenter and Hannah Gallagher will travel to Perth this October to present a combined capsule collection on the runway for the event’s Handmade for the Earth program at the Midland Junction Arts Centre.

In an industry where designers typically pay to participate, both students were directly sponsored by the event’s Creative Director to showcase their Bishop Druitt College Textiles HSC Major Works. The national recognition comes after months of work hand-crafting, designing, and botanically dyeing their own raw silks, wools, and linens using natural plant materials.

Bishop Druitt College Textiles Teacher, Samantha Douglass, said having high school students selected for a professional, sustainable fashion week is an extraordinary achievement.

"To see HSC students operating at this level of artistic maturity and environmental responsibility is incredible," Ms Douglass said. "Amelie and Hannah didn't just design garments; they built them from scratch using natural plant dyes to colour their own raw silks, wools, and linens. Their commitment to sustainable design fits the ethos of Eco Fashion Week Australia beautifully, and having EFWA sponsor their runway debut in Perth is proof that regional student designers can step directly onto the national stage."

For the two young designers, receiving national sponsorship right as they finish their senior school studies offers a remarkable start to their creative careers.

"As a dancer, I've always been drawn to movement and how fabric responds to it, so when it came to our HSC Major Works, I knew I wanted a technique that felt just as organic," said student Amelie Carpenter. "I love how botanical printing uses leaves and flowers to transfer their own colours and shapes straight onto fabric—it's such a direct way of designing with nature. To find out our work was selected for a national runway in Perth and that EFWA is sponsoring us to showcase there is surreal. We can't wait to see our pieces under the runway lights."

Fellow designer Hannah Gallagher agreed, noting how her love for the environment shaped her major project.

"I've always loved being outdoors, so eco printing felt like the perfect way to bring that connection to nature into my design work," Hannah said. "There's something amazing about a leaf leaving its exact imprint on silk, wool, and linen - nothing artificial, just what the plant gives you. Being invited to share our collection alongside established sustainable designers from across Australia is such an honour, and it's given us so much confidence as we finish school and look toward the future."

Eco Fashion Week Australia will run from October 30 to November 1 at the Midland Junction Arts Centre in Perth.