WA schoolgirls are Wool4School winners

According to AWI, a record 12,000 entries from secondary school students throughout Australia were received this year - the sixth year of the competition which is linked to the Food and Fibre component of the national curriculum.

With a global fashion trend towards combining sport and leisure, linked to this year's Olympic Games in Brazil, this year's theme was "dress your favourite sports team".

Year 8 winner was Natasha Banks (13), Belridge Secondary College, Perth.

Year 7 winner was Lana Harris (12), Cornerstone Christian College, Busselton.

Before they were announced as winners last week, neither Natasha nor Lana had any connection with sheep or wool.

Natasha designed two outfits for the Australian Olympic team's female athletes with the focus on their runners.

She called her project "summer run" and the uniforms included a shirt, jacket, pants, leggings and an accessory knitted sweatband made from pure Merino wool and wool-blend fabrics.

One design was a competition uniform comprising a sleeveless shirt and leggings made from lightweight performance Merino Mesh base-layer fabric to allow freedom of movement.

"It is made especially for running," Natasha wrote in the notes accompanying her competition design.

"I was inspired to do running at the Olympics because I love watching them all compete against each other and watch them show good sportsmanship.

"I love running and it's one of my favourite sports so I decided to base the entry on the things I love, running and the Olympics."

Colours she chose were gold/yellow, green, with a touch of blue, orange and red which she said "look fantastic all blended together".

The Merino Mesh fabric "is great for running because it's a two-way stretch allowing maximum movement," she said in her notes.

"It is a soft, comfortable and breathable material great for running in."

The competition shirt featured a stylised Australian flag on the front and a map of Australia on the back depicted in contrasting orange to brown colours and made up of Aboriginal motifs.

Her leggings design featured a similar band of Aboriginal motifs down the outside of the right leg.

Her second design was a pants and waisted zip-up jacket using the thermo-regulation properties of M-Shell Lite Merino wool-polyester blend fabric, to go over the top of the competition uniform.

"This outfit is for the athletes to wear when not competing, whether it's before the race or after to keep you warm or even for receiving your medal," Natasha wrote.

Last week Natasha said her mum Sukanya encouraged her interest in fashion design.

"She's very good at fashion and jewellery," Natasha said.

Natasha's interest in sport – she plays netball - also influenced her decision to design Olympic outfits.

Natasha and her fashion and design classmates had to research pure-wool and wool-blend fabrics as part of the competition and had access to wool samples and watched videos on the AWI website to learn about wool.

With her success, Natasha said she might like to continue on to a career in fashion designing - combined with sport.

"I don't think so," she said when asked if she had ever been up close to a sheep.

Fashion and design teacher Anna Dyer said Belridge students had entered Wool4School for the past three years.

"It's a specialist course and I use it (Wool4Schools competition) as our main design project," Ms Dyer said.

"Natasha had worked on her entry throughout first term and she's very talented.''

There were two other Wool4School finalists in Natasha's Year 8 class, Bianca Shepherd and Stacey Brown.

Belridge Year 9 students Faith Reid, Madison Carroll and Hollie Johnson were also finalists as were Year 11 students Bree Liddell, Karlee Wilson and Lindsay Gray.

At Busselton, Lana Harris, (12) designed a zip-up jacket and tracksuit pants outfit, including comfortable woollen socks and a matching sports hold-all bag for Australian Diamonds netball players.

Lana chose Merino Perform WP pure wool for the jacket and Merino Fresh for the tracksuit pants because of their easy-care, comfort and water-shedding features.

AWI group manager of education and extension Julie Davies said Wool4School was an important part of an expanded education program at AWI.

"We have an education offering to develop not only the next woolgrowers, textile experts and fashion designers, but the next generation of consumers as well," Ms Davies said.