Fashion promotion student Caroline wins Bonmarché Fashion for All Award
A University of Central Lancashire fashion student is celebrating after winning an award at Graduate Fashion Week in London.
Final year fashion promotion student Caroline Bowden was awarded the Bonmarché Fashion for All Award at the prestigious annual event, which is the largest showcase in the world of graduating undergraduate fashion talent.
The 22-year-old won for her ‘GUESS Peachy’ campaign in which she came up with the idea of creating a range of jeans to better fit curvy women.
Caroline said: “I can’t believe I’ve won such a fantastic award at Graduate Fashion Week. It means so much and it a great way to end my time at UCLan. I feel like all of my hard work has finally paid off.”
The competition asked entrants to submit a body of work that reflects how attitudes to fashion design have changed in recent years with fewer restrictions around age, size and shape.
"I can’t believe I’ve won such a fantastic award at Graduate Fashion Week. It means so much and it a great way to end my time at UCLan. I feel like all of my hard work has finally paid off."
Caroline commented: "I felt like my campaign fitted in perfectly as it very much focused on designing jeans to fit women, not women to fit jeans. I developed a unique concept that is not currently on the market called ‘waist-to-hip technology’, which is something that the judges said they were 'blown away' by.
“I designed the whole campaign from scratch, including an innovative product design, art directing a photoshoot, a new store layout, outdoor marketing, an online and social media strategy, Instagram-able packaging and re-branding GUESS.”
Caroline’s tutor and fashion promotion lecturer Eve Astle said: “We all feel so proud of Caroline's achievement as she has worked tirelessly and with the highest attention of detail to produce a truly stunning body of work. The judges at Graduate Fashion Week had wonderful comments endorsing their choice and we couldn't agree more - a lovely girl, with an innovative and commercial idea and a huge passion and belief in her project. I believe they also think she should sell her idea to the brand so watch this space.
“Fashion promotion is a fast growing industry that demands innovation, creativity and a real knowledge of what the consumers of tomorrow want - we have just proved once again that BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion at UCLan delivers.”
Caroline has already been offered a job in the fashion industry and will begin working as a graphic designer for global online footwear brand Public Desire in the next few weeks. The job follows a successful year-long work placement with the company where she started as a marketing assistant and was quickly promoted.
Caroline’s work will be on display at UCLan’s Preston Campus from 9-16 June as part of the Lancashire Arts Festival Degree Show.
