ON Tuesday, June 7 at the Greyville Racecourse judges for the Hollywoodbets Durban July Young Designer Awards selected and announced the semi-finalists for the competition, sifting through 110 entries and whittling the number down to 25 semi-finalists.

The challenge given to designers was to design a race-day outfit inspired by the theme “Show Me The Honey”, students from fashion design technikons and colleges across the province overwhelmed the high-powered panel of judges with the quantity and quality of their submissions.

The Hollywood Foundation created a buzz in the student design community last month by announcing that an incentive pool of R100 000 had been added to the competition with the winner getting R50 000 in bursary or tuition fee assistance from the foundation, runner-up R30 000, and the third-placed student R20 000.

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“We saw a lot of great work from the students, particularly in the way they interpreted the theme,” explained Hollywood Foundation ambassador Derrick Mhlongo.

“They did amazing research and impressed us with the use of fabrics that clearly portrayed the expression of their designs,” he added.

The competition has gained national acclaim for having kick-started the careers of many luminary fashion designers and has become known as a platform for students to express their creativity, unhindered by client and commercial demands and to show off their imagination and technical prowess in constructing their final garments.

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This year, colleges submitted record entries, keen to get back into the swing of nurturing their design students after two frustrating years of restrictions.

“The standard of the entries was just fantastic,” said fashion programme director Tiffany Prior. “It was great to see all the colleges so invested and showing their best work. The passion of the students and their models was just so evident.

“The future of the KZN fashion industry is definitely in very good hands,” she added.

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