The country’s top fashionistas gathered recently for the glittering finale of the Nokia Young Fashion Designer Award 2008. The event took place in the suitably urban setting of Whitaker Court, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, where guests drank a specially created Coole Swan cocktail entitled Coole Prism.
The windows of this distinctively trendy setting were blacked out to allow guests to enjoy their drinks in the surroundings of neon tube lighting and stripped back urban surfaces while DJ Paul Webb provided a funky, electro soundtrack. Judge, Eileen Shields, lent her own fashion savvy to the venue with a specially created installation of her world famous footwear.
Guests were called to their seats by a virtual MC, Prisma, who took the form of a pair of sexy red lips on plasma screens around the venue.
The 21 finalists sat tentatively in the front row as their creations came down the catwalk one by one. This year, students used Nokia’s latest fashion handset, the sleek and mysterious Nokia Prism, as inspiration for their design. These distinctively urban handsets draw their inspiration from modern architecture, geometric shapes, sharp angled lines and neon light. After the finalists outfits had been shown, judges Eilis Boyle and Tim Ryan showed their stunning collections.
In a tense finale, the international judging panel including dress designer Eilis Boyle, knitwear designer, Tim Ryan, leading Irish tailor, Louis Copeland, New York shoe designer, Eileen Sheilds and Clothes Show presenter, Brendan Courtney, went backstage to decide on the winner.
The runner’s up were: Simone Rocha, National College of Art and Design and Louise Devereaux, Limerick School of Art and Design who both won €1,000 and crowned the overall winner was Michelle Wilson from Limerick School of Art and Design who won €5,000, a Nokia Prism handset and media profiling for the year.
Guests in attendance included Ireland AM presenter Sinead Desmond, designers John Rocha and Helen James, Caroline Morahan, Anne Doyle, Xpose’s Aisling O’Loughlin, stylist Cathy O’Connor and Derrick Carberry from Brown Sugar.
