Award winning design

AGWA Design Store is committed to supporting emerging talent and young creatives.

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2025 AGWA Design Store Accessory Prize, now in it's third year. This award celebrates rising stars in fashion accessories design.

This year’s winner is standout North Metropolitan TAFE student, Tom Westlake.

The winning entry is currently on display at the Design Store until the end of the month.

Winner Tom Westlake spoke about his creative journey and the honour of being shown at the AGWA Design Store.

Your family history, particularly the Durack family's migration story, has strongly influenced your designs and collection. What is it about this journey that made it your source of inspiration?

The Durack journey from Ireland to Australia became my source of inspiration because I really wanted to research and dive into the historical side of clothing, but I also wanted something that I could closely relate to, my family’s heritage. After hours of research, fabric sourcing and garment sketching, I knew that I would be able to use this story as inspiration for my collection.

Your collection combines historical silhouettes with modern techniques. What challenges did you face while blending these two elements, and how did you overcome them?

When toiling and creating a new garment, I found it challenging to decide where to start and how to create the first shape that I could work from. Photographs of historical garments from the period of the Durack’s journey played a major role. One of the biggest challenges I faced was making sure that the designs didn’t look too much like a traditional garment, but also stayed true to the inspiration. I included a lot of deconstruction such as reversed and inside out garments, exposed stitching and oddly fitting garments to place this modern twist on the bodies of work. I overcame these struggles by constantly draping on the mannequin to create a new and interesting shape, changing the design until I was satisfied.

Sustainability is a key aspect of your work, especially with your use of upcycled fabrics. How do you choose the materials for each piece, and why do you believe it’s important to incorporate these practices into fashion?

When buying fabric, I initially began sourcing deadstock and second-hand fabrics with a colour palette I had in mind. I then would group these fabrics together to see what textures and colours went well together. I wanted to ensure that all eight looks included a traditional looking fabric, and all maintained a consistent approach, so I included a pin stripe in each look. Choosing fabrics also came with wanting to have the most sustainable approach possible, whilst still finding the fabrics I thought would suit my collection. I managed to source all the fabrics locally in Perth from deadstock fabric bins, second hand shops, local fabric stores or family and friends. Incorporating these practices made it a challenging but enjoyable task to have to really search to find what I wanted. Along with this, buying locally gave me a much smaller area of fabrics to look for but also helped reduce the amount of fabric waste and helped to support local independent fabric retailers.

Mary Durack’s books, Kings in Grass Castles and Sons in the Saddle, seem to play a major role in your inspiration. How do these literary works inform your design philosophy and aesthetic choices?

Kings in Grass Castles and Sons in the Saddle both authored by Mary Durack, tell the pioneering story of the Durack’s journey from Ireland to Australia in the mid 19th century. I began by deeply researching the Durack’s journey, in particular both novels, old interviews and asking questions of family members. I then broke the journey down into four key stages. These being the beginning of the story in Ireland, the boat journey to Australia, the trek across Australia and finally their new life in the North of Western Australia. I used these four stages as my inspiration and designed each garment based on each stage of their pioneering journey.

As a rising star in the fashion industry, what do you hope to achieve with your recognition through the AGWA Design Store Accessory Prize, and where do you see your brand in the next few years?

Being recognised for the AGWA prize has given me a terrific opportunity to bring my designs to a larger audience. I hope to achieve greater exposure with my designs in the local fashion industry. In the next few years, I see myself continuing to develop my skill set, design processes and innovation through peer collaboration and hopefully some mentoring from those have already made their mark in the local industry.

The AGWA Design Accessory Prize is a testament to AGWA’s ongoing commitment to supporting and promoting pathways for up-and-coming designers across all creative art forms.

The award is part of the amplified youth program that celebrates The West Australian Pulse 2025 exhibition featuring works from Year 12 Visual Arts graduates, which kicks off in May this year.