Freja Marie Donald

“Resene Top Notch is an unwavering shade of dark holly green that radiates comfort and quiet confidence; it captures the energy of a forest alive with movement on a stormy night. The moment I opened the paper bag; I was overwhelmed with all kinds of emotions and reading the words "colours of change”. I had a clear vision of the emotions I wanted to express, and from that foundation, Metamorphosis took shape.

"Metamorphosis implies a major alteration in a person's life, often moving them from one phase to another." On New Year's Eve, my partner's mum, Trudy, passed away; a week later, we held her funeral on my 18th birthday. The time between and after that was a blur of feelings I didn't understand and colours that I wished would swallow me whole, I spent months spinning in circles until I couldn't take it anymore and found myself searching for a way out of the cocoon I had enclosed myself in.

I saw peace in Resene Top Notch, and I wanted to create a visual expression of my journey whilst challenging myself with a design representative of a monarch butterfly's cocoon, I wanted to incorporate the structure into a hooded corset style vest that flows down the body's natural curve onto a bubble skirt representative of a swan plant that monarchs feed and grow on.

If I had to choose one word to describe my emotions leading up to and throughout this project, it would be metamorphosis. My goal is to capture the essence of that transformation within my design conveying a journey that resonates universally and invites personal interpretations.”

Resene Whitecliffe Colour of Fashion clothing - 2025

Photography by Natasha Boshkovski Photography

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