Talented Amy wins fashion accolade

Amy 22, from Ripley, scooped the top spot in the 2017 FAD Competition, which took place at the Freemasons Hall in London on Monday.

Now in its 16th year, the event was hosted by Fashion Scout as part of its official schedule for London Fashion Week, and featured designs by 20 undergraduate fashion designers from 16 different UK universities.

It is the only national undergraduate showcase to take place on the London Fashion Week catwalk.

Winner Amy, a student at Nottingham Trent University, said: “It was amazing to win. Just to see my work on the catwalk at London Fashion Week is like winning, so winning overall is just amazing. I entered just thinking that I had nothing to lose.

“It was a really good brief, it was really inspiring, so why not? Just have a go. I never expected to win, ever. I’ve learnt so much from making my collection for FAD. In particular, time management, because my dissertation was due in at the same time.

“Meeting the other finalists was also great, they’ve all been amazing. All the hard work they’ve put in, I want everyone to win! Everyone should be so proud.”

Winner Amy Carter joined the jury on stage to be presented with £1,000 by FAD jury member Liz Griffiths, head of creative textile and design research at Missoni.

Talking about why the jury selected Amy as the winner, Liz said: “Amy’s collection was complete knitwear collection. It was beautifully finished, she had a fantastic sense of colour and she had mixed stitches and different approaches to knitted fabrics together.

“It was very different, the way she mixed and put them together, but they worked. Amy’s work was innovative, even though it was also very commercial and sellable, and we liked that. And also the sense of colour was not normal, it was a little bit different, and Angela Missoni loved it too.

“FAD is a marvellous vehicle to transport budding young design talent from universities to the catwalk through Fashion Scout.”

More than 120 entrants from 40 UK colleges and universities took part in the 2017 FAD Competition, resulting in a shortlist of 20 finalists.

On the night the catwalk hall was packed with industry keen to harness the talent of tomorrow, with representatives from ASOS, All Saints, Inditex, Karen Millen and Uniqlo seated front row.

2017 saw the collaboration between FAD and knitwear brand Missoni, who challenged contestants to ‘take the Missoni approach’.