Top talent fashion students awarded by FashionUnited and IAF

Finally, the waiting time has come to an end: 84 excited students

were waiting for the results of the IAF International Student Awards 2012. Yesterday the winning students have been announced. They are now rewarded with paid internships at top-notch fashion companies.

In collaboration with FashionUnited the International Apparel Federation (IAF) awarded this year again talented students worldwide. Under the name IAF International Student Awards 2012 students were invited to participate in a competition aiming to win a paid internship at a world class fashion company.
The students were free to choose between the categories Fashion Design and Fashion Branding. A given assignment adapted to the hosting companies provided uniformed guidelines.
The British Fashion Design Student Rebecca White, 20 from the University of Leeds won the IAF International Student Awards 2012 in the category Fashion Design. She will receive a paid internship in the design department of SuperTrash in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Rebecca’s work reflected her vision and interpretation of the modern SuperTrash woman under the title “The SuperTrash woman combines outspoken personality with effortless style”. Her result demonstrated that she has the perfect combination of technical skills and knowledge of trends and design.
Sophie Cannings, the 21 year-old Marketing student from Nottingham Trent University won in the category Fashion Branding. DIESEL offers her an internship in Düsseldorf, Germany. Sophie convinced the Jury with her inventive and humorous creation of a Diesel campaign called “Pure and unproductive pleasure”.

Both winning students were selected among 4 other pre-nominated candidates in their chosen category.
The judging panel was composed of industry insiders such as:

• Felicia Perez, Head Design, Supertrash
• Julia Hengstermann, HR, Diesel
• Angelique Westerhof, Director, Dutch Fashion Foundation
• Matthijs Crietee, Deputy Secretary General, IAF

The competition was exciting. Next to highly creative assignments it was interesting to see where the results all came from. In total, students from 64 different fashion institutes around the world competed in these awards. 84 complete assignments from students out of 22 countries were sent in.
Sarah Delatour, Chairman of the Fashion Education Network (part of the FashionUnited group) is proud of such an international spread. Her objective is to “collaborate with fashion schools, institutes and organisations to promote fashion education worldwide.” Both FashionUnited and the IAF aim to build bridges between education and the industry. The IAF International Student Awards is an important instrument in carrying out this mission.