This time next year Jess Britten, the winner of the Westpac Young Fashion Designer Award, hopes to be enrolled at London’s Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design, a school that has produced some of the world’s most well known fashion designers.
With famed motorcycle inventor and engineer John Britten and former international model Kirsteen Britten as parents, it’s little wonder that Jess has her sights set at the top.
But it takes more than good genes to be a success.
Meeting at their Christchurch home, love RED met with Jess, Kirsteen and sister Izzy, and it quickly became clear the Britten women aren’t afraid of a bit of hard work.
“It’s about acknowledging what you’re good at and going for it,” says the 20 year-old. “My theory is that if you are passionate and have a bit of natural talent then all that stands between you and your dreams is hard work. And that just makes success sweeter when you achieve what you set out to.”
Kirsteen agrees, comparing Jess’s drive to her father’s, who tragically passed away in 1995. “John always used to say that he wasn’t actually more talented than other people – and that’s debatable – but he had tenacity. That was the one different thing he had. He always finished the things he started.”
It was apparent from an early age that Jess would have a career in fashion, begging Kirsteen for sewing lessons at just seven years old.
“The first thing I made, and I think mum still has it somewhere, is a full length polar fleece skirt that was baby purple with green flowers all over it.”
“I think she wore it to bed for a while as well,” laughs Kirsteen. “Everywhere she went people said ‘wow, what a cool skirt’. Everyone wanted to know where she got it. I wanted to respect all their journeys and I could see that fashion was where she was heading and where she had great talent.”
Jess says it was this kind of encouragement that meant her ideas never stopped.
“No one ever said to me ‘you look crazy or bizarre’ – I thought I looked great. The way you are nurtured is a huge part of it. In my opinion, no matter what you are born with, it can be trodden down by people telling you what you should do and
I can’t remember mum ever saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘that looks hideous’. She let me form my own opinion, whatever I thought looked great – that was what mattered.”
It was Izzy who suggested Jess enter the Westpac Young Designer Competition, even missing a lecture at Polytechnic just hours before the competition closed to model for Jess’s entry.
But Izzy, a commerce student at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, jokes she’s yet to see any personal benefits.
“I bought a dress in an op shop a year ago and I’m still waiting for Jess to hem it!”
Apart from studying at St Martins, Jess’s short term goals include work experience with a New Zealand label and an internship overseas.
Ultimately she hopes all this hard work and training will one day lead to her having her own label.
“I’m still figuring out where I’m best placed in the market. You have to find the balance between being commercial and being a creative genius. I don’t find it useful to look at books or what other people are doing because it affects you subconsciously. I see everything around me and what it could be.”
But in the meantime, Jess’s $5,000 prize money from the Westpac Young Fashion Designer Award and mentoring from Kiwi designers Huffer will go a long way to getting her to London.
