Young Designer Awards: A Celebration of Young Talent

‘Funnily enough one of the first sewing lessons I had at school I sewed my finger up,’ Joanna Marcella recalls vividly. Who was to know upon leaving she would start up her own design company producing children’s clothing. She now runs a series of fashion events dedicated to raising the profile of exceptionally talented young designers in the UK. Fortunately her sewing skills are no longer called into question.

The Fashion Designers’ and Craft Makers’ Young Designer Awards is a not-for profit project founded by knitwear designer Joanna Marcella in 2002. This annual event aims to build a solid foundation for young individuals struggling to make it alone in the fashion world. Faced with such obstacles as a lack of funding, marketing and PR, these young people are being given the opportunity of a lifetime; a platform upon which to establish themselves as they showcase their work in front of an audience of fashion editors, designers, lecturers, press and celebrities. ‘This award is really for young people who are passionate about fashion, they are actively drawing, researching, making things anyway, and it’s a career path they want to take,’ Marcella explains.

With an expanding database of designers, the Young Designer Awards are fast becoming Britain’s hottest multicultural fashion event for 19 to 25 year olds currently studying at school, college or university. Previous winners have included 2004’s Avant-Garde Designer of the Year Gavin Douglas – who now showcases in Paris, London and New York fashion weeks, as well as receiving sponsorship from The Princes Trust and winning the Fashion Fringe award in 2006 – and Jay Wilson, whose work is ‘really exceptional… we consider him a genius here at the Young Designer Awards.’ Marcella adds that one of the young designers competing this year is also destined to make it big.

Supported by former model Christie Dinham – co-founder of Caribbean Fashion Week – the awards ceremony features prizes for not only Avant-Garde and Young Designer of the Year, but also International Designer of the Year, which she judges herself.  Since 2004 Dinham has taken the lucky winner of the award to New York Fashion Week or Caribbean Fashion Week.

Gavin Douglas at London Fashion Week SS08

The Young Designer Awards involve between 15 to 17 entrants from all ethnic backgrounds and various regions throughout the UK. This project expects designers to produce a cutting-edge garment that encompasses and takes inspiration from the organiser’s chosen theme. For 2009, Joanna Marcella and her furiously busy team of staff have selected the brief ‘Homage to a Fashion Leader’. ‘We are looking for creativity, originality and for them to demonstrate that they have been through the entire design process, producing a garment that meets the brief we’ve laid out.’ Marcella also mentions the regular monthly progress meetings designers must attend in order to receive support and guidance with their work.

With a strict criterion to participate and an ever-increasing waiting list, the Young Designer Awards are the catalyst to catapulting talented individuals on the international fashion stage. They reward young designers with small sums of money, a platform on which to showcase their work and sewing equipment. Those lucky enough may even be offered the opportunity of work experience with some of the industry’s leaders.

The Young Designer Awards fashion parade and award ceremony takes place from 4pm on 31st October, at the Novotel hotel, in London’s King’s Cross.

For more information and for tickets visit www.youngdesignerawards.com

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