Winner of 2016 Young Designer of the Year – NCAD’s J.J.Donnelly
Last Wednesday, the 2016 Young Designer of the Year was announced at the Dublin Fashion Festival. The fashion and award show was held at Bank of Ireland, College Green, and hosted by Brendan Courtney and Sonya Lennon.
Co-hosting with them was this year’s Face of the Dublin Fashion Festival, Darren Kennedy. Twelve finalists from various colleges around Ireland was chosen for the 2016 Young Designer of the Year Award, that includes a €2,000 bursary.
The panel of six judges made the final decision and decided that fashion design student from National College of Art and Design, J.J. Donnelly, wins 2016 Young Designer of the Year.
Independent’s Fashion Editor, Barbara Power was chairing the panel and was joined by Fashion Photographer, Barry McCall, TV3’s Expose Series Producer, Debbie O’Donnell, Aisling Kilduff owner of Design Centre, Head of Personal Shopping at Brown Thomas, Caroline Hanratty and Head of Personal Shopping at ARNOTTS, Clara Halpin.
Finalists included, from NCAD – Nino Sanaia, Grainne Walley, Karla Bowden, Aisling Duff, J.J.Donnelly and Ailbhe Griffin; from Griffith College – Sarah Murphy; from Ulster University – Jordan Robinson, Hannah Vail and Laura Ward; from Grafton Academy of Dress Design – Naoimi Ajetunmobi; and from Limerick School of Art and Design – Jack Roche.
Dublin Fashion Festival is presented in association with GALAXY. Last year’s winner Katie Donohoe’s design has been chosen for the GALAXY lead image and was photographed by Barry McCall.
West Coast Cooler and Jameson made lovely cocktails and drinks for the guests at last night’s awards. The event kicked off with twelve Irish top models taking to the catwalk in the designs of this year’s twelve finalists.
Creative Fashion Director, Jules Fallon, chose the models who are all from First Option and decided on make-up by No.7 and hair by Toni & Guy.
The students used a variety of Irish textiles, with a mixture of winter and summer designs. After their fashions were revealed the models modelled some of the new ranges from retailers across the city, like Dunns Stores and Brown Thomas.
The Dublin Fashion Festival is an initiative of Dublintown.ie. It will take place from the 5th to the 11th of September 2016.
Venues at Brown Thomas & BT2, Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre, Powerscourt Centre, Arnotts, Ilac Shopping Centre, Jervis Shopping Centre and Penneys will open to designers and models to bring the latest fashions to the public and shoppers.
The festival will be hosting live fashion shows, there will be in-store activities, special offers on offer and free make-overs. Here is the moment JJ.Donnelly is announced as the 2016 Young designer of the Year: https://www.facebook.com/DublinFashionFestival/videos/1250662218287075/
If you did not get to see last night’s Fashion Show, do not worry, on Friday the Creative Quarter Fashion Show will be taking place in Powerscourt Centre.The show will start at 7.45 p.m.
