Sarika Pancholi

Designer

FASHION DESIGN

Sarika Pancholi, DMU fashion design graduate, was was awarded the David Band Textiles Award at London’s Graduate Fashion Week 2011. Sarika's colourful catwalk collection including knitwear garments made from shoelaces. 

Sarika talents have been spotted by high street fashion retailer River Island, who have offered her an internship as a knitwear assistant. Fashion designer Zandra Rhodes has also named Sarika as one of the top five British designers to look out for this year.

For her collection, Sarika took inspiration from her rich Indian culture and traditional British knitwear techniques, and also incorporated everyday items into the garments, such as shoelaces, straws, lolly-pop sticks and whistles.

Sarika said: “I am still feeling very overwhelmed by the whole experience of Graduate Fashion Week – it has been an amazing few days. It’s a privilege to win an award in honour of the late David Band, who has been an inspiration to so many artists and designers. It’s a real reward for all the long hours spent on finalising my portfolio and catwalk collection.”

Della Swain, fashion design course leader at DMU, added: “We are very proud of Sarika and the uniqueness of her work, which meant she stood out as the best contender worthy of winning the David Band Textiles Award. It’s a real testament to the quality of the innovative collections we had on the catwalk this year.”

Commenting on Sarika’s portfolio of work, judges at the Gala Show said: “From research to conclusion Sarika has used her own personality and understanding of textiles to a great degree.”

Sarika was awarded £750 and DMU also received a cash prize for the David Band Textiles Award.

Her collection also recently won her The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters Bursary of £2000. The bursary meant Sarika was mentored and guided by someone from the company throughout her final major project.

Learn more about study in the School of Fashion and Textiles

Fashion Design BA (Hons)
Contour Fashion BA (Hons)
Footwear Design BA (Hons)
Textile Design BA (Hons)
Fashion Textiles and Accessories BA (Hons)
Fashion Buying BA (Hons)