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Project 20/20 Student Design Award winners revealed at Professional Clothing Awards

Four UK students were named as Project 20/20 finalists as part of the special awards event at Excel, London.

27th June 2016

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Wichita, KS

Clothing/​Footwear

The Cordura brand team celebrated at the Professional Clothing Awards on 22 June by recognizing leading fashion and textile design students who took part in the Project 20/20 Student Design Awards 2016 competition.

Four UK students, James Parker, Bethany Martin, Mollie Crabtree, and Lauren Jones, were named as Project 20/20 finalists as part of the special awards event at Excel, London, for their creative, futuristic professional workwear designs.

Student Design Awards

The Student Design Awards aim to empower young designers to create their own visions of professional work clothing. This year's programme, Project 20/20, challenged student designers to conceptualize corporatewear, workwear and/or personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers in the year 2020.

The Cordura brand team encouraged students to go a step further with its Cordura Durable Design Award that focused on the integration of technical fabric functionality and commercial viability within design entries.

“The Cordura brand is focused on pushing the boundaries of durable fabric innovation,” said Cindy McNaull, global Cordura brand and marketing director. “Today's young designers are essential in bringing forward-thinking designs to life, and helping us construct the durable fabrics of tomorrow. We're pleased to see all of the futuristic workwear garment innovations from this year's competition, and to have the chance to celebrate the textile industry's up and coming design leaders.”

Winners and designs

Twelve Project 20/20 semi-finalists were selected in March to make their garment visions become a reality, and final judging took place on 19 May. Winners were officially announced last week at the Professional Clothing Awards event.

The Student Design Awards aim to empower young designers to create their own visions of professional work clothing. © Invista/Professional Clothing Awards

Overall Winner is James Parker, third year, Fashion Design and Business Studies at Brighton University. Parker's design features specialist garments for arborists/tree surgeons. "My Project 20/20 experience has been a fantastic learning curve," said Parker. "I had such amazing support from the PCA Staff and Cordura brand team. They were extremely helpful in bringing my vision to life. I had to overcome a lot of technical issues whilst pattern cutting the design, and I gained new understandings of working with tech fabrics."

Cordura Durable Design Award Winner is Bethany Martin, second year, Hons in Fashion, University of Northampton. Martin created a garment range for professional outdoor landscape gardeners. “This project has stretched my technical skills and has been thoroughly enjoyable and very rewarding,” said Martin. “I realise that competitions such as this are so important to engage students in a different aspect of the fashion industry, and it has certainly opened my eyes to what different career paths within design are available.”

Runners up

First Runner Up is Mollie Crabtree, second year, Fashion at University of Northampton. Crabtree created an upgraded uniform for those in customer focused roles in the banking sector. "My Project 20/20 experience has been really enjoyable, from gathering research to then designing and sending the garments off to be judged. When I heard I had been shortlisted, I was over the moon. It felt so rewarding after working on the designs," said Crabtree.

This year's programme challenged student designers to conceptualize corporatewear, workwear and/or personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers in the year 2020. © Invista/ Professional Clothing Awards

Second Runner Up is Lauren Jones, second year, Fashion Design at University of Northampton. Jones' design was cantered around forward thinking workwear for those in professional fast food environments.

"Basing the Project 20/20 brief on my current job at Domino's Pizza helped me understand problems of the uniform that I came across or disliked; therefore, I was more passionate about the changes I made. I based my design on solving the problems at hand and this really helped develop my ideas to create the final vision," said Jones.

Further reading

www.professionalclothingawards.com

www.cordura.com

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