Invista’s Cordura brand has announced the list of twelve students, who have been selected as semi-finalists of the 2016 Project 20/20 Student Design Awards, a young designer award. Their workwear of the future designs will be showcased at the Professional Clothing Show part of Safety & Health Expo, in London, from 21-23 June.

The Awards honour the students’ creativity and include a special Cordura Durable Design Award for functional, forward-thinking work apparel. “Innovation is an integral component of our brand ethos. The creative minds of young designers are essential not only to our brand, but to our role in the industry as we develop the durable fabrics of tomorrow,” said Cindy McNaull, global brand and marketing director of Cordura fabric.

“We are honoured to team up with the Professional Clothing Awards again to celebrate the next generation of textile industry innovators and empower students to design and create the professional clothing of the future.”

Challenge and judging

Entry for the awards closed in February. Fashion design students from across the UK were challenged to envision the future of professional clothing, including corporate wear, workwear and PPE, by producing innovative, style focused performance wear designs for the year 2020.

Judging took place on 1 March at the Double Tree by Hilton in Milton Keynes, where the judges were presented with the top 70 (down from 200) entries from Colleges and Universities from all across the UK. Student entries were scored on ten criteria including rating how well the design would stand up to everyday use in the job or industry sector chosen and how well the design brief for the workwear of the future was followed.

Yvette Ashby, Managing Director of Professional Clothing director-e show and awards led the judging and announced the top sixteen selections for further deliberation. From this group a final 12 semi-finalist designs were then selected to be made into garments.

Semi-finalists and their designs

• Mollie Crabtree (University of Northampton) – upgraded uniform for those in customer focused roles in the banking sector.
• Megan Woodman (Bletchley College) – creative printed garments for doctors and nurses working on children’s hospital wards.  
• Phillipa Bradshaw (Burnley College) - innovate designs for corporate wear and hotel staff.
• Sharon Mensah (University of Northampton) - highly researched airline uniform inspired by Italian culture.
• Bethany Martin (University of Northampton) – garment range for professional outdoor landscape gardeners.
• James Parker (University of Brighton) – specialist garments for arborists/tree surgeons.
• Lola Odumosu (Bletchley College) – upgraded uniforms for the airforce (pilots and ground support staff). 
• Robyn Hughes (University of Huddersfield) – the creation of next gen firefighting garments.
• Gemma Stevens (University of Northampton) - unique designs for both men and women’s spa uniforms.
• Rebekah Theobald-Brown (Bletchley College) – range of outfits for tomorrow’s professional chef. 
• Lauren Jones (University of Northampton) – forward thinking workwear for those in professional fast food environments.
• Ethan Connolly (Burnley College) – next gen h-vis protective wear for professionals working for example in road upgrades.

The four finalists shortlisted for Project 20/20 and the Cordura Durable Design Award will be announced on 22nd June at the Professional Clothing Awards 2016.

www.cordura.com