Nicole Obidowski

Leah Mossoff

They’re kind of a big deal—and no, not the same way Ron Burgundy is in “Anchorman”.

Nicole Obidowski, 27, and Leah Mosoff, 21, may seem like your two average students studying the Fashion Arts Diploma Program at Vancouver Community College, but after knowing their recent design opportunities it is clear they are not!Both girls are students in the full-time VCC Fashion Arts program, are graduating this year, and have grown to become great friends. And as great friends usually think alike, both Nicole and Leah were wearing very similar denim material tops when I sat down with them to talk about their recent experiences at Montreal Fashion Week, as two finalists of the Telio design competition.For the past 5 years, Telio, a Quebec based company specializing in importing and exporting textiles, has been holding a design competition one a year open to students in Canadian fashion design programs such as the one that Nicole and Leah are enrolled in. This year, art-à-porter was the chosen theme, and participants were required to submit a drawn design and concept reflecting art history’s influence on fashion by fall of last year. Over 350 students participated in the competition, and amongst them were Nicole and Leah, the only two students selected from VCC’s Fashion Arts program. From those 350 + designs submitted, Telio narrowed them down to 25, and the students whose designs were chosen were asked to proceed with physically producing and sewing their designs, and then flown to Montreal in March of this year, to showcase their looks for the competition. In a way, it was like a “Project Runway”, except, joked the girls, the students had about 4 months to sew their garments instead of only a couple of days!Even under all the pressure, Nicole and Leah, both talented seamstresses, buckled down and proved they were tough contenders and serious fashion designers.Because they were asked to use a more traditional approach for Telio, Nicole and Leah each focused on one technique and designed their garments around that. Nicole used boning, explaining that it was a technique traditionally hidden and used mainly to restrict the body to an exaggerated curve.  A common garment example evident of this technique is a corset, as the coil wire helps create the structure of the top. She decided on designing a knit dress that incorporated boning, which resulted in a futuristic pattern with angular elements that hugged the body in all the right areas.Leah focused on the handcrafted detailing of pleats, pom-poms and scallops, creating a cropped wool shirt with the image of armadillo on a panel on the front of the shirt. Along with her top, Leah made lace pants, which added to the uniqueness of the look. Both designs were carefully thought through, authentic, and truly embraced art-à-porter. Overall, it took one month for the girls to draw out and design their looks, and then another two months to physically produce and sew them.But as the saying goes, hard work pays off. Both designs were chosen as top 25, and Nicole and Leah were given the opportunity to attend Montreal Fashion Week to reveal their designed garments in the fashion show for the Telio competition. Talk about exciting! It gets even better…

Nicole’s design was awarded 2nd place overall in the competition, and she received a Telio scholarship for $2,500 to use towards her fashion design studies, along with two tickets to attend New York Fashion Week! (Jealous!!!)So congratulations are in order for both Nicole and Leah, whose exposure to Montreal Fashion Week and being top 25 in Telio was so rewarding and really confirmed their decision to continue in the industry as young emerging fashion designers. Both girls want to own their own line one day, but for now, they are straying away from the stereotypes that may be perceived of fashion designers–”snobby, catty, drama queens“– and focusing on preparing their garments for the VCC grad show in September and life after grad! We wish them the best of luck, and know that the huge strides they are taking and have taken to where they now are as student fashion designers, foreshadows more success that is to come. Congratulations to VCC’s own fashion design superstars, Nicole and Leah!Visit the Telio website to see the 5 winners and the 25 finalists of the competition, and to see their fabulous designs: http://www.telio.com/competition2010EN.htmlWritten By: EUDORA KOHPhotos of garments provided by Vancouver Community College