Talent search on for young fashion designers

Media Release

Newmarket Business Association

Sunday 3 May 2008

Talent search on for young fashion designers

Registrations are open for aspiring young fashion designers aged between 15 and 18 to be in to win a trip to New York Fashion Week to work backstage for the Karen Walker show. 

The Newmarket Business Association has launched the 2009 ‘Looking to the Future - The Newmarket Young Fashion Designer Award’ with sponsors Business World Travel, Qantas, Karen Walker, Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design, and Taylor Boutique.

“This award will provide the winning designer an opportunity of a lifetime,” says organiser Lea Worth, marketing manager of the Newmarket Business Association. 

“There are many awards that recognise up and coming designers. However there is very little on offer for young people interested in getting into fashion design. The inaugural 2008 competition attracted entrants from as far south as Te Anau and as far north as Whangarei.”

The winner of the Newmarket Young Fashion Designer Award will fly Qantas for two to New York with four nights’ accommodation courtesy of Business World Travel. He or she will get to work backstage at the Karen Walker Show at New York Fashion Week and will receive $1,000NZ spending money. 

The winning designer will also receive a 12-month scholarship at Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design, and a two-week design assistant internship working alongside Auckland designer Vicki Taylor in the Taylor Workroom.

Mrs Worth says it made sense for Newmarket to organise this award given Newmarket’s fashion status not to mention the success of last year’s competition that was won by Paris Kirby of Westlake Girls’ High School.

“Newmarket is synonymous with designer fashion and boasts over 40 local and international designers. Quite simply, Newmarket is the Fashion Capital of New Zealand.  Through this competition we might just discover New Zealand’s next top designer.”

Any New Zealand resident, from anywhere in the country, male or female, aged between 15 and 18 years can enter.

The brief is to design and make an innovative and directional daywear outfit to be judged by a panel of local Newmarket designers and stakeholders in the fashion industry. The awards ceremony in October will be a gala event showcasing the leading entrants’ designs.

A $25 registration fee applies. Official registration closes on 15 June. Registration forms, further details and terms and conditions can found on www.newmarket.co.nz.

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