It’s in the bag as fashion student wins design prize

A national competition to design the official bag and t-shirt for this year's River Island Graduate Fashion Week has been won by a Nottingham Trent University student. Fashion design student Frankie Yung will see her design used on bags given out at Graduate Fashion Week and on t-shirts worn by staff at the high-profile talent showcase. Staff at River Island stores will also wear the t-shirt and will be giving the paper bags to customers in the build-up to the London event from June 6-10.

Frankie, who competed against fashion students across the country, incorporated random animal images into her bag design, using prints of a hedgehog, koala, chicken, flamingo, lion and moose. She then took close up photographs of pencil shavings which she added to the images to form various animal parts, such as the koala's ears, the hedgehog's spikes, the moose's antlers and the lion's mane. Colours in keeping with the Graduate Fashion Week brand were added to the shavings. The bag will also feature the event and sponsor logos, along with Frankie's and the university's name.

Animal designs will be included on the front of the t-shirt, with the event details and logos on the back. As well as seeing her designs in print, Frankie also received a £500 prize.

"I'm just so happy to have won, I can't believe how many people are going to get to see my designs now," said Frankie, who is in her final year in the university's School of Art and Design.

She added: "I wanted to incorporate something completely random into my designs and looked at various ideas before deciding to settle on the animals. They were just a lot more fun and seemed to make people smile the most. The inspiration behind using pencil shavings for animal body parts came about after I sharpened my pencil to begin sketching and started looking at the shavings on my desk."

David Porter, interior director for River Island, said: "Frankie's design reflects what fashion is all about; being quirky, fun and on-trend. Her bag and t-shirt were well-executed and made us smile."

Gilly Staples, fashion design course leader at Nottingham Trent University, said: "We were delighted to hear about Frankie's success, she thoroughly deserves it. She responded very well to the brief, creating eye-catching designs which will now be seen by a great many people. It's a fantastic result for her personally, and for the course, and we are all really excited about seeing her work on the bags and t-shirts."