Westfield has been forced to amend a key component of its spring/summer marketing campaign, after it offered a new scholarship program through a now-defunct fashion college.
Westfield Bondi Junction (WBJ) has disclosed it will now award a $15,000 scholarship to a student studying at the Whitehouse Institute of Design. The successful applicant will be selected via a design competition and announced in June 2010.
The scholarship had previously been on offer to students at the Australian School of Fashion (ASF), formerly known as Esmod Australia. WBJ was forced to hastily rearrange the scholarship program after ASF’s parent company, Meridian Group, went into administration on November 5, forcing the school’s closure.
The lack of forthcoming information about the school’s collapse was evident from WBJ management, which was not aware of the school’s withdrawal from the market until contacted by Ragtrader magazine on November 11.
In a letter to ASF students at the end of October, Meridian Group general manager Darren Wise wrote that the scholarship would be accompanied by opportunities for internships with fashion brands that have retail outlets within Westfield.
A WBJ spokesperson confirmed it was unlikely the same internship opportunities would be available to Whitehouse students under the program’s new incarnation.
The spokesperson said she believed the scholarship will be the only one of its kind offered by Westfield in Australia. While the funding is currently being awarded on a once-only basis, the possibility of offering it in future years will be considered once the 2010 project has been completed and reviewed, she said.
The scholarship recipient will be selected by a panel of four judges comprising a Westfield representative, two designers with stores in the WBJ complex, and InStyle magazine editor Kerrie McCallum.
It is the second association with WBJ for McCallum, who in October 2009 joined with InStyle staff and the shopping centre to host two weeks of fashion and lifestyle events within its grounds.
The two designer judges have not yet been finalised.
The scholarship is the latest in a long line of initiatives conceived by WBJ management to market the centre as Sydney’s premier fashion destination. It is available to second-year students only to fund the winner’s third year of study.
Erin O’Loughlin