SYDNEY: Romance Was Born has added to its growing list of accolades, taking home the top prize in the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards (SOYA).
Designers Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett beat out fellow finalists Jade Sarita Arnott (Arnsdorf) and Gary Bigeni to walk away with $5000 in cash, $5000 in flights from Qantas and a mentorship opportunity with Nicky and Simone Zimmermann.
The award caps off a top year year for Sales and Plunkett, who were named the winners of the $10,000 Woolmark 2009 L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Designer Award in March. The Romance Was Born catwalk parade in April 2009 at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week was also among the most talked about of the event.
Romance Was Born was selected as the winner of SOYA's fashion category by award judges Nicky and Simone Zimmerman, who sorted through a nationwide pool of entries before settling on the winning label. The Zimmermann duo were on hand to present Sales and Plunkett with their award at the SOYA event yesterday evening (November 11).
Designs from Arnott, Bigeni and Sales and Plunkett were all showcased throughout the evening via a live model installation. The event was held in Sydney at the Museum of Contemporary Art and attended by leading lights from across the seven creative industries that SOYA celebrates, namely fashion, music, film, photography, visual arts, visual communications and industrial and object design.
SOYA began in 2004 and is Australia's leading annual grants program for emerging creatives aged 30 years and under.
The 2008 winner of the fashion category was Antipodium designer Geoffrey J Finch.