Aoife Mullane Winner Of The SDC International Design Competition
Aoife Mullane from Bray is this year’s winner of the SDC International Design Competition. An event was held at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London where she was awarded the Veronica Bell Trophy and a £1,000 cash prize for excellence in the field of colour and design. Aoife will also benefit from media attention and an international profile as part of this prestiges award. She is a National College of Art and Design student here in the Liberties and recently graduated in Printed Textiles.
Aoife, who competed against eleven other finalists from countries like South Africa, New Zealand, China, Portugal, India, Hong Kong, UK, Thailand, Bangladesh and Singapore, took first prize with her “Buy less. Choose Well” designs. This year participants were asked to use colour as part of the theme “Buy Less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality not quantity. Everybody is buying far too many clothes.” in their designs.
The competition was judged by Duncan Neil (from Turnbull Prints), Dame Zandra Rhodes (an acclaimed designer) and Laduma Ngxokolo (previous winner from South Africa). The judges commented that Aoife’s concept and product showed an extremely high degree of professionalism. They welcomed her designs as classic, beautiful, subtle and ideal for interior products at the high end of the market, and also suitable for the home.
In an article this week with Knittingindustry, Aoife was quoted saying, “It is a huge honour to win such a prestiges internationally recognised award. It has given me motivation and confidence in my work and it has made me feel the long hours spent in studio are truly worthwhile. I have recognised that today there is an appreciation of craft made items. People want to buy products that do not feel or look mass-produced but that have a feeling of authenticity; a connection to humanity. My collection us deeply focused on raw materials and geological matter found in nature. Foraging and exploring a variety of bird’s eggs, pebbles, sea glass and driftwood is where it all began. Mineralized rocks inspired use of this metallic within my work. My colour palette reflects my natural subject matter. Screen-printing and hand dyeing is an intrinsic part of my design work.”
Second and third place went to Thaweesak Chattuwan from Thailand and Tasneem Patrawala from India. Aoife is the third student from NCDA who has won in this competition and follows in the footsteps of NCDA students, Rachel White 2013 winner and Orla McCarthy 2014 winner.
The SDC International Design Competition was first held back in 2002, 13 years ago, and is open to students of 13 countries across the globe. Entries to next year’s competition is already under-way for undergraduate fashion and textile design students. The theme for 2016 is “Making it Personal”.
Well done to Aoife Mullane, that was well deserved!
