Who Wants To Be A Designernaire?

Atelier · Jan 6, 2004

Women's Wear Daily
Tuesday January 6, 2004

FRESH FASHION: British designers have complained for years that they have the talent but simply lack the cash to make it big. Well, now a few lucky newcomers will get the chance to prove it.

Fashion critic and author Colin McDowell is about to offer budding British designers the chance to be an overnight success. In September, McDowell will unveil the first London Fashion Fringe event, a contest open to all Britain-based designers that carries a grand prize of $180,000 to be used to set up a business. “This is not just about a fashion show. We are adamant about establishing new designers,” said McDowell in a telephone interview. “We’re looking for someone who has the spirit and determination to do fabulous, exciting things — and make clothes that people will want to wear. And we want the winner to go commercial very quickly.” Stylist Katie Grand will chair the designer selection committee, which in April will choose four to six finalists from among the applicants. The contest is open to anyone working in Britain who has not shown his or her collection publicly before. Each finalist will receive $18,000 to buy materials and accessories for a September runway show. The main financial supporter of the event is Red Bull, and applications will be accepted on the Web site fashionfringe.co.uk starting Jan. 12. McDowell, who has spent the past two years organizing the event, has raised about $1.8 million in sponsorship money.
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Any of our Britain-based TFSers giving this a go?

(If the name Colin McDowell looks familiar but you don't know why, strawberry daiquiri posted an article by him over on the Supporting Cast Forum.)

Lena · Jan 6, 2004

More on the competition Atelier posted, reserved for our UK fashion crew (are you there aciiid?) , get those pencils sharpened

A NEW LONDON FASHION WEEK

A new Pop Idol-style fashion competition that will run alongside the biannual London Fashion Week festivities is causing contention within the industry. The Red Bull-sponsored fringe event, which will result in a new designer winning £100,000 in prize money to launch his or her own design business, is seen by some as an innovative way to breathe new life into the London Fashion scene, while others claim the money would be better spent helping out designers who are already struggling to establish themselves. "I do not want the people from London Fashion Week to think we are in some way trying to destroy their little world," fashion commentator Colin McDowell, who has been hatching the new scheme over the last two years, told The Sunday Times. "But I feel the most dangerous thing you can do is to praise something just because it happens to be British. What we need to do is to reactivate young participation. We had one of our greatest moments for emerging designers when students were so politically opposed to Thatcherism. There was a fashion of protest that made things edgy. Nowadays they don't fight so much. We have 40,000 fashion students. But it is not just them we want to attract. The winner could be a solicitor from Scunthorpe." Katie Grand, stylist supremo and editor of Pop magazine, will chair a panel of judges to pick four finalists who will receive £10,000 to spend on a catwalk show next September. "We don't want to end up as a TV fashion academy," she said. "But we do want to find somebody quite wild rather than someone who can make a good pair of trousers." John Wilson, chief executive of the British Fashion Council counters that there is plenty of already-tapped talent in the industry, however. "Colin McDowell might make a better Simon Cowell of the fashion industry than me," he said. "But is the solicitor from Scunthorpe going to be what we are looking for? The money for this competition should be redirected into business which have already started." (January 6 2004, AM)

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from Vogue UK

ignitioned32 · Jan 6, 2004

Thanks for the news guys!

Sean will be expecting you there.

Acid · Jan 6, 2004

hell yea although i dont like this idea of a 'manufactured designer' i've always wanted to make it on my own.........

but it sounds so appealing

ignitioned32 · Jan 6, 2004

Originally posted by Acid@Jan 6th, 2004 - 7:30 am
hell yea although i dont like this idea of a 'manufactured designer' i've always wanted to make it on my own.........

but it sounds so appealing
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Totally!

LadyIllusion · Jan 6, 2004

What's the criteria for this competition, does anyone know?

Lena · Jan 6, 2004

i dont know details, maybe the red bull site has a link?
if i see anything relative to this i'll post here GucciGirl

LadyIllusion · Jan 7, 2004

Originally posted by Lena@Jan 6th, 2004 - 7:28 pm
i dont know details, maybe the red bull site has a link?
if i see anything relative to this i'll post here GucciGirl
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Thanx Lena

Who Wants To Be A Designernaire?

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