Stitching together a farmyard frock

Sandy Bromwich sits in her Leamington house weaving glossy black ribbons together with delicate strands of white fabric. The two materials criss-cross on her lap, a long black fringe sashaying over her knees. The chequered panel might evolve into a skirt, a cape or a dress. Bromwich isn’t sure yet. “It depends if I can get what I want to work,” she says.

She’s experimenting with different looks for next year’s Fieldays Ag Art Wear Awards. Everything in the competition has to be created from items that can be found on a farm.

She submitted this year’s entry, Glad Rags, two days ago, and started working on next year’s, as yet untitled, straight away. The black ribbons are hand scissored from the inner tube of a tractor tyre. For the white lace, Bromwich has shredded an offcut of non-slip matting.

All garments will be worn by models if they make the final. They need to fit a size 10 woman or a medium frame 5’8” tall man in standard New Zealand sizing. Every outfit needs to withstand 10 wears. There will be eight showings over four days plus two extra showings for judges.

It’s a good thing Bromwich likes to keep busy. She works full-time in supplies at Waikato Hospital. A mother of three grown sons, she’s also a keen cyclist and is heavily involved in the Cambridge BMX Club, coaching both adult riders and the junior Sprockets.

Bromwich won first place in the Designer Traditional category last year with Wired, a four-piece ensemble featuring a metallic skirt and top paired with a pillbox hat and matching boots. “I just couldn’t believe it when I won!” says Bromwich. “I was really surprised but also really proud. It was something that I’d tried to achieve for a number of years so it was a very special moment.”

After entering the competition most years since 2003, Bromwich had placed third on three previous occasions. However she had never spent as much time as she did on the winning piece. It took two years to complete. She had intended to enter it after 12 months of work, but wasn’t happy with how it was sitting. So she took another year to rework it.

For Wired Bromwich laboriously separated lengths of metal and plastic out of electric fencing wire and made the separate garments using different types of traditional knitting stitches. There is movement and form and a fragility belying the outfit’s origins on the farm. Squares of crochet are interlaced with silver flowers. The back of the bodice features intricate lacework inspired by a spider’s web.

There’s a framed certificate up on the mantelpiece announcing the win, together with a photo of the outfit being modelled on the catwalk, and one of herself with Te Radar, the New Zealand comedian who presented the award. Meeting Te Radar was a highlight.

Ag Art Wear is the only design competition Bromwich has entered, although she has given some thought to entering WOW – the World of WearableArt Awards Show. It would depend on the time commitment required. “As it’s not my main focus but one of many, I’m not sure what the future holds,” she says.

Fashion designer Robyn Brooks of Ooby Ryn is judging the Ag Art Wear awards again this year, a role she loves. “There are so many creative people out there with amazing imaginations to work with different materials and come up with so many original ideas,” says Brooks.

What will the judges be looking for this year? “Original use of material. A lot of the same materials are used each year.” Last year Brooks was impressed with an entrant’s use of recycled items from the farmhouse kitchen. “I’ve always wanted to make one from tea bags and last year someone finally did!” she says.

Since Ag Art Wear organiser Wai Tamai has been involved with the event, she has seen some unusual materials put to use.  “One year we did have a garment that was made from dehydrated meat, and storage was an issue. As we’re out in a rural area mice are quite common and can get in anywhere.”

For this year’s entry, Bromwich has submitted a glamorous evening frock accompanied by a men’s morning suit – complete with top hat. “It’s taken me the whole year. I only spend a couple of hours a day if I’m lucky. Just whenever I’ve got time, I’ll spend an hour here or an hour there.”

Taking inspiration from Marilyn Monroe’s billowing white dress in The Seven Year Itch, the frock has movement and volume despite being crafted from heavy mulch matting sourced from farm supplies store RD1. She’s used the mulch matting as it’s a new type of product and it drapes easily. There’s also a survival blanket, some non-slip matting and some tail bandage, which you’d normally find wrapped around a horse’s tail.

At the back of the dress Bromwich has sewn a white tree silhouetted against a red moon. Cutting out the appliqué and hand stitching it was a big job, taking many hours before it was all stitched down.

The shoestring straps and edging of the dress are accented with strips of silver survival blanket material. It’s effective and catches the light, but it’s hard to work with, tearing easily.

A self-taught sewer who’s always been a bit creative, Bromwich made her three sons’ clothes as they grew up. “I’m not a great artist. I can draw, and I like creating. I like to fiddle.”

She first heard about Ag Art Wear when her partner Kevin Lindsay worked at Mystery Creek as the operations manager. He took her along to Fieldays – she’d never been before. She has no background in farming and was just there as a townie to have a look at the sights. But she was impressed with the Ag Art Wear entries on display and thought she’d have a go.

How does she get inspiration for a design? “I just see things and I’ll interpret them and think, ‘I wonder if I can work that into a garment? I wonder if I can do that?’ Something will just take my eye. I can be anywhere, and I’ll go, ‘I wonder if that’ll work?’ And then I’ll start fiddling, trying to see what I can do and how I can create something.”

Several of her past entries are downstairs in Bromwich’s basement. One of them has already started to be pulled apart to be fashioned into a new creation. But it’s not her first prize winner Wired. She’ll never part with that one.