The Spirit of Fashion Awards

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to the pre-launch of The Spirit of Fashion Awards collection and pop-up store.

The McArtherGlen Spirit of Fashion Awards, which are in partnership with The Royal College of Art were started to push, mentor and develop emerging design talent. The initiative helps young designers to increase their profiles and develop their businesses.

After 12 months of development, and a full media and PR campaign the three winners (which were announced last year) are showing and selling their collections designed specifically for the project in a pop-up store in Covent Garden. The store is located at 4 Monmouth Street, London WC2H 8JB from 7th-18th September (perfect timing for those that are in the area for LFW- pop in between shows, it'll be worth it). The pop-up store will then move to Manchester and Glasgow.

The three winners are Carolyn Massey, Matthew Miller and Rachael Barrett.

Carolyn Massey designed two menswear shirts for the project. With her mainline collections exploring what it is to be a true gentleman, it's no surprise she picked a traditional Grandad style shirt as her starting point. Adding contemporary twists with contrasting colour bibs, mother of pearl buttons and a removable chain adds nice touches to the final product.

Matthew Miller's contribution to the project was his desire to create the 'perfect white shirt' and pretty perfect it is. Matthew’s design has been created using 3D software and digital print techniques.

Rachael Barrett's womenswear collection was inspired by classic school uniforms. Clean simple lines in delicate silks produced a chic and contemporary collection.

I was also lucky enough to walk away with a piece from the collection. I went for a black, silk dress by Rachael Barrett. It's just beautiful and is only one of 100 made in total which makes it even more special.

Many thanks to Hannah at i-am-beyond and Fiona at Rain Communications and the rest of the teams.

Read more here.