Roland Mouret and Claudia Schiffer have spoken about judging the first stage of this year's Fashion Fringe, the competition to support up-and-coming design talent.
The designer said: "We were looking for a little 'joie de vivre'. We asked ourselves whether they have the technical ability, of course, but more than that, 'is it memorable?', 'is there something there?',
Schiffer agreed: "We took back all thoughts of personal taste. Asking 'would I buy it?' - that's not important."
The choice of Mouret and Schiffer as a judging partnership merges the intentions of the Fashion Fringe panels of previous years: Donatella Versace, who was looking for business acumen as well as talent; and John Galliano, who admitted his principle requirement was unadulterated creativity.
Mouret stated simply: "We need both.
“When Erdem won, I was on the panel and I really wanted him to win. To see him now, what he has become - that's what we're looking for."
As to whether the designer and the supermodel have found common ground in their choices, he said: "We're terrible. We're exactly the same - we are so quick!
"We see something and we'll say 'no'. It's instant. And then we see something we like and we'll say 'it's there'."
Schiffer admitted: "We couldn't get the list down to ten. We got it down to 11 right away but we thought all 11 need to be given a chance to show us what they can do - so there's 11 semi-finalists for the first time."
