MELBOURNE: Australian womenswear wholesaler Body has announced the winners of its inaugural Fledgling Designer Project.
An initiative of Body founder and senior designer Dainy Sawatzky, the project offers three up-and-coming designers the opportunity to design a collection for the brand each season.
RMIT graphic design graduate Jolet Ucchino scored top honours in the apparel category while Chloe Elizabeth, a Rosemount Australian Fashion Week exhibitor and jewellery designer, took out the accessories category. RMIT communications graduate Annika Seidel will head up the graphic design component.
The three designers will showcase their collections in all Body stores until January 2008.
Ucchino's Body range is titled 'Bows and Angels' and includes quirky tailored dresses, blouses, jackets and culottes in crisp cottons and ginghams.
Elizabeth's accessories collection, entitled 'The Hero(with)ine', is produced from natural materials such as recycled wood, cast hydrostone, handmade beads and organic cotton. Exclusive printed silks and a diverse range of bangles, rings, neckpieces, scarves and headbands have also been incorporated into the line.
Seidel's range for Body was inspired by her travels in Europe with one print featuring a map of actual streets and islands in Scandinavia and another including a hybrid animal print where animals, insects and people are spliced together.