Young Designer Awards 2011

(Celebrating multi-cultural design excellence) Young Talent Given a Great Opportunity

On Saturday 26 March Fashion Designers' & Craft Makers' Network held their innovative 2011 Young Designer Show at The Novotel London Hotel St. Pancras. This exciting event was established by knitwear designer Joanna Marcella with the aim to help raise profile of exceptionally gifted young avant-garde designers. Families, friends, fashion lovers and the press alike gathered together at The Novotel Hotel St Pancras for what was an impressive and exciting evening.

The show hosted the Young Designer Award and the Radical Designer Award; the panel of special guest judges were Jacqueline Hancher, Young Business Woman of the Year award recipient (1984) and stylist to the stars, Caroline Gladstone from IMG's Fashion Fringe platform and Sue Mee Maudsley Fashion Designer & Style Advisor.

The organisers of the Young Designer Show and Awards are delighted to announce that first place went to Ezoe Robinson who produced a delicate chiffon design inspired by the musical The Lion King. Second place went to Hannah Bloxham who created a striking final piece which was made with high technical skill and looked fantastic on the catwalk and third place was awarded to Thamina Lipa Chowdhury. All young designers gave excellent presentations to the panel of judges and demonstrated great commitment to the project.

First place Radical Designer Award for designers over 21 years went to Karen Jonga she created a remarkable collection that captured the judge's attention and second place was awarded to Sharen Kaur who stole the show her collection which had an amazing luxurious look.

Joanna Marcella says "We've found a great bunch of new, fresh and exciting young designers and we seek to encourage them as much as we can through our Designer Development Initiative. The Designer Development Initiative is an attempt to support aspiring multi-cultural fashion designers and aims to make a significant difference to their economic well-being by offering support, mentoring and motivational sessions, and by producing events that provide the opportunity for participants to network and promote themselves." The Radical Awards winners will start preparing their presentation to put before the panel of directors at Seattle Fashion Week.

Nichole Sams Seattle Fashion Week Director of Marketing says "Seattle Fashion Week is excited to extend one fashion showcase during an upcoming Fashion Week to the lucky winner of the Radical Designer Awards. The most important aspect of being a young designer is showing your art to the world. This helps gain fans, buyers and eventually gets designs in boutiques and retailers. Seattle is a great place for new designers to showcase work, as a city enjoys unique works of art."

The Young Designer Show ended with designers, models, fashion editors and stylists networking to together.