Fashion students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) are competing to take part in an awards night which has been billed as “one of the most stylish and glamorous events ever held in the East Midlands”.
FASH-ANNE: BBC news anchor Anne in DMU's Contour Fashion department
The Fashanne Awards have been organised by BBC East Midlands Today news anchor Anne Davies and will be staged in the opulent surroundings of the neo-Gothic Belvoir Castle, in North Leicestershire, which is home to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.
The Fashanne Awards are the first ever East Midlands fashion awards and will be competed for between De Montfort, Nottingham Trent, Derby, Northampton and Lincoln universities to celebrate the next generation of designers.
Awards judges will include Anne, who also has her own fashion and accessories TV channel, designer Susi Henson, who has created work for Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears, fashion blogger Becky Sheeran, of TalkBeckyTalk, and Susannah Constantine, one half of TV makeover queens Trinny and Susannah.
The short-listed entries – five from each university – will be put on display at Belvoir Castle for members of the public to view for the three days running up to the awards night on Thursday 23 June.
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Presenter Anne took time out from her busy schedule this week to meet students from DMU’s Contour Fashion, Fashion Design and Footwear Design courses to tell them all about the competition as well as invite them to shoot smartphone videos of them working on their pieces for the awards.
The plan is to include the videos on social media as well as the potential to appear in a half hour fly-on-the-wall documentary that the BBC is producing about the Fashanne Awards.
Anne has visited DMU many times as a journalist and enjoyed a tour of the Fashion and Textiles department. She said: “The heritage of the East Midlands is steeped in fashion, textiles, hosiery and footwear and I saw pictures of New York’s Met Ball and thought “do you know what…?”
“Having spent quite a lot of time at DMU I know you have amazing courses and yet we do not have an East Midlands Fashion Awards.
“It is about time we celebrated the incredible talent we have in this region. Just here at DMU you hear about the students’ placements and look at the work they are turning out…it is amazing.
“I have been to DMU many times. I just want to turn the clock back, make a few changes to my A-levels and be a fashion student here.”
Louisa Haywood, a third year Contour Fashion student from Birmingham, said: “I am definitely entering the awards. It is nice to be able to compete in something this big up here in the East Midlands rather than down in London. And I do like a castle!”
Fellow third year Carys Sheen, from Leicester, added: “It’s really exciting. Competition is always exciting and I already have ideas of what I am going to do. It’s also great to have a fashion show and awards event at an extravagant location.”
Posted on Friday 11 March 2016