The winner of the Persil Irish Fashion Award will receive €10,000 and the chance to have their winning design manufactured and sold in Dunnes Stores.
The brief was for the students to design a casual, machine washable and durable outfit for both mother and child. Take a look at the final designs here.
Find out more about finalist Aimee Chan below. We will profile each finals in the coming week.
Aimee Chan: "I was born in Portsmouth in the UK to Chinese parents, but when I was two years old my parents moved to Dublin. I grew up in inner city Dublin (East Wall) and still live in my childhood home to this very day. Throughout my life, I was influenced by the presence of two contrasting cultures in the form of my Chinese parents and studying in a Catholic primary school. As I was growing up in Ireland, I also made frequent enough visits to Xiamen in China every two years to visit my grand parents. The changes in environment were always a shock to the system whenever I flew over, rich colours everywhere I looked - in the city, in the temples, in the locals' clothing.
"As a young child, I was always so fascinated with my mother's issues of Vogue magazine, and would obsessively leaf through each and every single page analysing the colours and fabric adorning the models' bodies. I had a funny habit of memorising every fashion designer that I came across. I have always paid close attention to how garments were constructed or worked in tandem with each other to form a beautiful silhouette, and how the fabric for me, tied everything together. When I was about 11 years of age, I was brought to a fashion designers studio in Hong Kong, where I got my first proper glimpse into the fashion industry. That was when I knew that fashion was an area that I wanted to work in. I was asked by the head designer to draw and design an outfit which I so gladly did (an Empire line dress with stripes...naturally it took the world by storm!).
"My hobbies (other than staying up all night designing!) would include yoga, aerial hoop, photography, visiting galleries and museums and also discovering new music every day. I believe that keeping fit and mindful through yoga and meditation has helped me stay focused in college and feel continually inspired every day.
"In 2009, I was accepted into Core Year in the National College of Art and Design. This became a giant stepping stone in the realisation that Fashion and Textiles was the department which best suited me. The following year saw me specialising in Fashion Design. At the end of third year, I decided to take a year out and I worked in various retail companies such as Topman and Schuh. Working with retail companies provided me with invaluable experience in styling and visual merchandising. During this time I was also doing an evening course in the Grafton Academy of Dress Design to keep up the design and sewing aspect of my studies.
"Funnily enough, when I began my final year in September 2013, it became apparent that the aspect of fashion that interested me the most was colour, print and fabrication. I've always been so mesmerised with how patterns and surface worked together in telling a story, or creating a concept. I first experimented with printed textiles in my third year when I used the heat transfer press to print images of my father's old passport onto silk. This year I was introduced to screen printing and laser cutting which will be featured in my two Persil outfits. Screen printing has lately become a new obsession of mine and has added a new dimension, almost a raised texture to my fashion work throughout the year. I have also been exploring the technology of laser cutting as a means of creating layers and adding an almost delicate appearance to my work. My love of fashion has allowed me to translate my experiences of cross-cultural diversity and the blurring of cultural boundaries into something that is both tangible and representative of my own personal experiences. I adore creating voluminous shapes and silhouettes in contemporary fabrics through traditional means of smocking and draping. For me, it is never too much to layer the drama. Placing print beside print, and even screen printing over print, creates a myriad of creative outcomes which is what excites me the most about fashion design, there are endless possibilities to what you can create!
"€10,000 would greatly advance my fashion career as I hope to start a fashion and textile collective involving design graduates when I finish college. I would also use it to fund my internships and gain precious experience in possibly London, Hong Kong or India."
Take a look at Aimee Chan's designs below.
