Help for Heroes dress was inspired by soldier statues

The 16-year-old student, from Lamarsh, was inspired by the 51 soldier sculptures in Mersea and Peldon.

They represent men who lost their lives in the First World War and were created to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great War.

Colchester St Mary’s School pupil Pippa is a keen sewer and photographer.

She designed the gorgeous garment as part of her fashion and textiles course – only for pictures of it to go viral after a tweet from proud dad Guy.

Former Strictly Come Dancing star JJ Chalmers, a patron of Help for Heroes, described the dress as “amazing”.

Pippa said: “I go past those sculptures all the time and like to photograph them as they are powerful images.

“They, and the fact Colchester has such strong links to the armed forces, were the things that inspired my design.

“I wanted to give something back to the military and what they do for us, so researched Help for Heroes and matched their brand colours in the fabric. Then I used printouts of the actual statues to create the images at the bottom of the skirt and added some military medals.

“The look is finished off with a poppy on my arm.”

It took Pippa 15 weeks to create the dress, which has a top made from chiffon and a manmade silk skirt.

Her GCSE brief was to create either a film-related or promotional item of clothing.

Unfortunately, due to the impact of Covid-19 on exams, the dress will not be taken into consideration for her final GCSE mark.

However, Pippa was able to showed off her unusual handiwork at her school bi-annual fashion show, in front of a smaller than usual audience due to the pandemic.

She added: “It was fun to take part and wear it on the catwalk.

“With that and the attention on social media that I just wasn’t expecting, it’s given me a big boost.

“I would definitely like to do something with the dress now and am talking to Help for Heroes about how we might be able to use it to help build awareness of the charity.”