This past October Costume Gallery supported Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease. Here at Costume Gallery we support the cause year round with our Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirt. We are excited to introduce you to the designer behind the 2017 design and share her story of how breast cancer lead to her desire to enter the contest.
The Costume Gallery family believes that together we can help make a difference and each year introduce a new Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirt based off submissions to our annual Dancing Towards A Cure T-shirt design contest. Proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts go towards breast cancer research and to provide financial assistance for those impacted by cancer. Details to enter the contest will be released mid-January 2017 on our social media pages and website.
Our 2017 t-shirt design winner is 23-year-old Brittany Knott from Alberta, Canada. Brittany works at her mothers dance studio, DanceCo Ltd. in Edmonton, AB along with her sister, who originally learned about the t-shirt design contest from a Costume Gallery email. “We generally receive many emails regarding contests, competitions and knowing my interest in design, she thought that this would be an amazing opportunity for me” said Brittany.
Brittany explains that her interest in design really began over the past few years, however she’s always loved any work that allows her creativity to shine. “ What sparked my interest was when I started working at my mother’s studio again and they were looking for a new updated spin on their studios branded clothing.” So Brittany took on the job of designing new branded clothing for DanceCo Ltd. “I had never done something of that caliber before, so I really had no idea what I was doing. When the first batch of clothing arrived, everyone was so excited about the new designs. It was such an amazing feeling seeing how happy our staff members and customers were about the designs I had created.”
When Brittany’s sister shared the details of the contest she knew her sister would be interested not only because of her previous experience designing shirts, but because their family had be impacted by breast cancer. “Originally, I couldn’t decide if this particular contest was something that I should enter into, as I would not have ever thought that I had a chance at my design being picked.” One day in her spare time, Brittany was playing around with some different ideas on her computer. “I still was unsure if I should submit them or not, when I realized that this contest was not just about me and my own designs. I lost my great aunt to breast cancer when I was younger. She was this amazing, positive, vivacious woman who had the most generous heart. Knowing how deeply her loss affected not only my family, but especially my grandma, gave me that extra push. I can’t even comprehend the thought of losing my sister, or anyone for that matter to this terrible disease. The thought of being able to help, even in such a small part gave me the extra push to submit my design.”
As Brittany started working through her design vision, she noticed that the past years shirt designs had a “dance” image as the focus. “I thought it might be a nice change to switch it around, and make text the focal point on the design.” And when she was notified that her design was chosen to be the 2017 design, Brittany says she couldn’t believe it. “When I saw the email, I was so shocked. I hadn’t told anyone in my family that I had entered. I called my sister and mom right away, and then my Grandma, as I knew it would hit home more for her than anyone. It was such an exciting moment!”
Show your support today and purchase one of the Dancing Towards A Cure T-shirts designed by Brittany. T-shirts can be purchases on our website or by calling customer service, t-shirts are highlighted on page 249 in our catalog. Once you get your t-shirt make sure to tag us on Instagram and Facebook so we can share!
