In a bid to win a $10,000 scholarship, high school students from across North America showed off their incredible creative abilities. The —produced by Duck Brand tube tape—saw a number of outstanding proposals from teenagers who made gorgeous homecoming dresses and tuxedos completely out of duct tape. An Ottawa Grade 9 student who won the contest after defeating 102 other dresses, Erika Avellaneda, said she thought it would be a “super fun” experience because “it’s not like your typical scholarship where you have to write essays.”
Avellaneda’s comprehensive, two- part dress—which features gold, blue and black patterns, an empty front, a long, beautiful trailing skirt, and matching accessories—took her 143 hours and 17 rolls of duct tape to make. The young revealed that the gown is likely to weigh about six pounds. “I worked for about 143 time. Some nights, I worked five days, other times one or two”, she said. “It was a difficult process. A lot of sitting down and working, but it was for it”. Vellaneda added that when designing the dress, she was inspired by the colors and designs of ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt.
“I think it’s amazing. I’m absolutely obsessed with it”, said the child’s girl Claudia. “Erika is a little shy, but she’s so innovative. This is kind of her way of speaking up and demonstrating all the amazing concepts in her mind. I’m so glad of her. All I do is for Erika. She is such a monarch. I’m so proud of her and she’s just 15 years older. Many of the other contenders are in their senior year of high school.”
However, the young fashionista’s daughter, Annette Dillon, explained that her child has always been a natural at art and design. “I think the dress is beautiful. I think it’s a true masterpiece”, said Dillon. “Erika has always liked the idea of buildings, ballroom dancing. For me, it gave a young person the opportunity to get out of her head and do something physical with her hands—you know, the concerns of the epidemic, class, and failing your courses. So I think that was a great benefit.”
Avellaneda explained in her obedience to the that she had the idea to create something that suited the pale academician aesthetic. “I imagined this dress dancing to classical music in a large, structural classical castle ballroom, similar to those in Rome and Greece. Although the dress was actually entirely light, I was also inspired to experiment with a black-on-white clash. I was inspired by the type and colors that you would find in old Greece, Rome, and Egypt,” she wrote. “A major part of the dress’s enthusiasm was the tones of old Egypt like gold, white, black, and turquoise/blue.”
When I realized that many of the shades I was already using matched the terrible eye, I knew I had to include it. Depending on which nations you ask, the terrible eye can represent many things. Some people claim that it draws evil spirits, while others claim that it can make you look terrible in the eyes of those who want you to suffer. Both of my outfits gave me inspiration, but I would like for my clothing to reflect a cruel gaze on those who want harm on me, the teen continued. Vellaneda acknowledged that she is unlikely to quickly forget working on the dress, regardless of whether she won or not. “I’m also quite glad that I now have the clothing and can use it,” she said. “It’s anything I can share with others. It’s certainly a great thing to talk about.”