DMU students dominate shortlist for UK Knitting Awards
Seven out of nine students shortlisted for knitwear awards at one of the UK’s most prestigious fashion events are from De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester.
DMU’s Fashion Design students dominate the shortlists in both the Knitter of the Year and Knitted Textile Designer of the Year awards, which will be judged at the Clothes Show Live at NEC in Birmingham on Tuesday (6 December).
The competitions at Clothes Show Live are open to thousands of fashion students from universities and colleges around the UK.
DMU is proud to boast three of the four students shortlisted for the Knitter of the Year award, and four of the five shortlisted for Knitted Textile Designer of the Year.
For Knitter of the Year, the students have created designs inspired by vintage movies, celebrating the seductive glamour of screen siren Elizabeth Taylor.
The shortlisted DMU students in the running for the Knitter of the Year trophy are: Alison Woodhouse, 21, from Lancaster, who designed a dress inspired by Elizabeth Taylor’s role as Cleopatra; Emily Lowsley Williams, 23, from Gloucestershire, who created a knitted dress with the iconic 1950s silhouette; Naomi Lobley, 19, from Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.
In the Knitted Textile Designer of the Year category, the shortlisted DMU students with a chance of winning the trophy and £500 prize money are: Kelli McGuinness, 21, from Tamworth, Staffordshire; Elysia Yeoh, 21, from Penang, Malaysia; Jacqueline Tsz-Ying Wong, 23, from Hong Kong; Charlotte Booty, 21, from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.
Della Swain, course leader, said: “It is a fantastic achievement to secure seven finalists in the knitwear awards and it demonstrates the diversity of skills learned by the students on the highly distinctive BA Hons Fashion Design course at DMU.”
Last year DMU’s Shivani Chavda won Young Designer of the Year at Clothes Show Live, and fellow Fashion Design student Charlotte Christy won the competition in 2008.
To find out more about DMU’s BA (Hons) Fashion Design visit: www.dmu.ac.uk/fashiondesign.
Image caption: L-R back row: Alison Woodhouse, Naomi Lobley, Emily Lowsley, Charlotte Booty. L-R front row: Kelli McGuinness, Elysia Yeoh, Jacqueline Tsz-Ying Wong.
