Audi Star Creation winners announced
updated the 7 October 2015 à 00:00
Rebecca Lam, Zhou Jun and Newman Han take the prize for Audi Star Creation 2014 and reveal their future plans to Marie France Asia.
After a record of 418 submissions, and 12 finalists – the final 3 winners of the yearly fashion design competition, Audi Star Creation, have been announced after an intense showdown held on May 12 at the Tent@Orchard.
The 3 talented winners – Rebecca Lam (25, Hong Kong), Zhou Jun (24, China), and Newman Han (29, South Korea) took home a cash prize of S$10,000 each and a one-year internship with fashion retailers F J Benjamin. The fierce competition was determined by a talented judging panel including Dick Lee (Audi Singapore Brand Ambassador), David Wang (Chairman of the Designers & Retailers Group of Textile & Fashion Federation Singapore) and Colin McDowel (Creative Director of Audi Fashion Festival 2014), Odile Benjamin (F J Benjamin) and Kenny Lim (Co-founder & Director of fashion label DEPRESSION).
After announcing the results, the three winners looked relieved after months of stress preparing their collections. And while all of them shared the excitement, they had different plans on what to do next.
After paying off her the cost of her collection, Rebecca Lam has plans to start her own label soon. Her winning collection, entitled ZHI – which means paper in Chinese – used fabric as if it were paper, manipulating it by cutting, folding, painting and burning techniques. “I created my own jewellery, shoes and bags and after the judges expressed interest in my pieces, I started considering setting up my own brand” said the designer.
Apart from Rebecca, the other two winners presented menswear collections.
Zhou Jun delivered a collection made up of well-tailored pieces that focused on unstructured silhouettes and fabric draping. His plans were in line with what the competition had offered: “After I graduate from London College of Fashion this year, I plan to come to Singapore to find myself an internship”- Says Zhou Jun whose choice of bold red hue was interesting to say the least.
Newman Han is the designer of the winning militaristic collection- made up of science exploration inspired pieces with touches of pockets and zipper detailing. About his future plans, Han says “This time around, I put all my time into an all-men’s collection. So for my next collection, I want to use the prize money to challenge myself and try womenswear.”
So what did the judges think of the winners?
According to Kenny Lim, the choice of the winners was unanimous while his personal favourite was Zhou Jun from China. He added “Having two menswear winners says something… menswear is the future.”
We’re certainly not complaining.
Shannon Gallagher
