Marks and Spencer team praise students

A TEAM of students from Hollings so impressed the judges of a competition run by Marks and Spencer that the company are now considering putting their design into production.

Students on the BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Technology were given the brief to design a product for older consumers aged 65 and over.

“The competition was an exciting, inspirational project brief for our second year students to take part in. This was launched at the beginning of the term by Karl Knight, Head of Innovation at Marks and Spencer, and his innovation team for brands within M&S.

“The aim of the competition was to launch an innovative product that would ‘shape the future of British fashion’ and support a clothing range designed with style and comfort.”

Independent and stylish

The winning team of Rebecca Seamen, Alice McMuldroch, Dania McGunigle, Demi Bray and Robyn Jones, set out to find an alternative to zip fastenings, as these can often be tricky for women with limited mobility.

They said: “We came up with the idea of losing the term ‘can you zip me up?’. We wanted older women to be able to feel independent as well as stylish and a bit sexy.”

The students said they were “shocked, excited and over the moon” to win the £1,000 prize.

The competition was judged by M&S technical managers Stephen Lawson, Jessica Coonan and Deborah Sharpe.

Well considered

Speaking to the students about the winning design, Stephen described it as a “fantastic piece of alternative thinking, which has been well considered all the way through from design to shop floor.”