Stage 3

3rd FAD Junior Awards at the V&A Museum of Childhood, 9th Oct 2007

The 3rd FAD Junior Awards were held at the V&A Museum of Childhood, a grand location for a dazzling display of creative young talent.

The show comprised designs by 27 students from boroughs across London and from Beijing. These were shortlisted from some 130 students who took part in the Fashion Futures 2 programme, consisting of a series of workshops followed by a summer school held at Central Saint Martin’s for the final qualifying students. The result? An outstanding catwalk display of creativity that had not only the students, but the audience too, buzzing with excitement.

The theme for this year’s brief drew on the relationship between China and the UK, in the lead-up to the Olympic Games held in Beijing next year, and inspiration was taken from silks, porcelain and the tea trade. The catwalk was alive with luxurious bronze-gold silks and vibrant embellishments taken from motifs of dragons and lotus flowers. Drawing on the Olympic connection, a strong sporty look was evident in many of the designs, and silk hooded tops, and pedal pusher-style sports pants came strutting down the catwalk as if it was the opening ceremony to the Beijing Games. The diversity of the creations was simply remarkable, proving that the students had really done their research.

Menswear Designer Manager at Tesco, Andreas Stavrou, announced the prize-winners, Nosipho Ndaba (Burntwood School, Wandsworth) and Zhou Xiao Tian (Beijing Polytechnic of the 2nd Light Industry) who shared first prize. Zhou Xiao will have her beautiful design manufactured by Tesco, and Nosipho will benefit from a work placement with the Tesco design team.

See 2007 FF2 In Action! here (Acrobat PDF).