Design Competition

Design Competition

Five years ago the BFTA introduced an annual fur design competition for students from fashion colleges in the UK. The competition has been a great success.

2007 Results

Each year there has been an increasing interest in the competition.  Entrants, from a variety of UK fashion colleges are required to design a collection of garments and/or accessories incorporating the use of fur. The purpose of the competition is to encourage students to think about using fur.

Contact us for more information and a competition brief.  Students should e-mail us details of the college they are studying at and name of the course.

A previous judge for the competition, Tristan Webber, said: "I thoroughly enjoyed working on the BFTA competition with the students and was pleased to see how well they interpreted the brief into their designs. It's fantastic to see a new wave of contemporary styles being applied to fur, as it is these designers who will help perpetuate the growth of this industry into the future.

The students' styles were widely varied, but you could really see the potential to capture a broad range of customers within the luxury outerwear market. It's fantastic that the competition has been launched in the U.K. because it a gives serious students access to materials, knowledge and advice that they otherwise could only wish for."

BFTA Vice Chairman and member of the judging panel, Frank Zilberkweit said: "The work was of a high standard and all of the finalists had obviously thought carefully about the use of fur in their designs. Fur is a very exciting fabric to work with and these students have created interesting designs that have a commercial feel as requested in their brief."

Workshop

As part of the project a selection of finalists attended a one-day workshop where they learnt about fur and were introduced to the different techniques that are possible. Tristan Webber spoke to the students about how he has chosen to incorporate fur into his work.

In 2005 the UK entrant won the Bronze Award at the International Fur Design Competition