MELBOURNE: Designer Dion Lee last night took honours in the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) Designer Award.
The Sydney based womenswear designer will now receive assistance from the Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) with implementing wool textiles into his collection. He also took home a cash prize of $10,000 and an AWI hosted trip to an international textile trade show.
Lee will also have the opportunity to represent Australia in a global Woolmark design competition against the best international emerging design talent.
The 24 year old trumped Gary Bigeni, Dhini, Therese Rawsthorne, Konstantina Mittas, Lui Hon and Gail Sorronda in the competition.
LMFF director Karen Webster said Lee had the potential to become Australia's biggest fashion exporter.
‘It was an extremely difficult decision to make given the abundance of talent and innovation shown. Dion Lee demonstrates a unique balance of precision tailoring and an design ingenuity," she said.
Presented by Woolmark, which is owned by AWI and supported by Vogue magazine, the winner was announced in front of 350 guests in Melbourne's Docklands.
Previous winners include Romance Was Born, Josh Goot, Yeojin Bae and Friedrich Gray.
L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival continues today in Melbourne with runway parades, business seminars and pop up events open to the public.