Fashanne on BBC Radio 2!
When Anne (or as Scott calls her ‘Fashanne’) surprised Scott Mills for his birthday on Radio 2. Spending the morning with Scott, Sam Ryder and JLS. BBC East Midlands Today 28th March 2025.
Fashanne
Fashion Designers of the Future Awards
FASHANNE is a conduit for connecting industry with the next generation of talent in the fashion and textiles sector. Fashanne partners with the Midlands-based universities providing a programme that gives invaluable insights into the workplace, a platform to showcase their students’ designs at our annual live event, mentoring and internships.
“The standard at Fashanne is phenomenal. For me, it’s a treat to spend time with such engaged, enthusiastic and talented young people. We have a big challenge ahead of us in this industry, and only with ingenuity and creativity in design and the making of the clothes, we are going to solve this problem. Every year I’m delighted and surprised to see what the students produce.” Patrick Grant, Fashion Designer and Businessman
“It is always a wonderful feeling when you see young talent, and think, actually, not only you can do it, but you do it well”. Giuliano Martello, Menswear Coordinator, Paul Smith
“Thank you for putting on a really successful evening – I am not just saying that because of the success of NTU, but because of the industry engagement.” Michael Marsden, Executive Dean, Nottingham School of Art & Design, Nottingham Trent University
“Excellent evening and extremely enjoyable! We really enjoy supporting the universities with their different projects and last night proves why it’s so important. Well done – you should be very proud.” Matt Boam, Director, Print 4
“A massive thank you to the Fashanne Awards and their judges for awarding me as the winner of the 2023 High Street Menswear Fashanne Award. I am so grateful that judges from such well-renowned fashion brands and platforms are fascinated by my work, and I thoroughly look forward to see where it will take me in my career. Thank you so much to Next for offering me an internship as part of the award, I’m eager to bring an alternative approach to multi-purpose outerwear and look forward to becoming a part of your welcoming team.” Scarlett Simpson, Fashion Design Graduate from Nottingham Trent University
“The Fashanne Awards are brilliant! I don’t think people know how amazing they are. I hope you feel proud of what you and your team have achieved.” Katie Greenyer, Creative Director, Pentland Brands
Latest News
Fashanne 2025 was a huge success! Please see the Fashanne 2025 page and some highlights below. Our socials have lots of behind the scenes and the best bits. Enjoy!
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Case Study with Caroline Sani – Winner of the 2022 People’s Choice Award – CLICK HERE
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East Midlands Chamber & Business Network Magazine: Connecting fashion talent with Industry – CLICK HERE
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Q&A with Emma Garner – Winner of the 2016 Accessories Award – CLICK HERE
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Fashanne chats to Brooke Sheerin – her experience of Fashanne and how she ended up with a job at Next at the end of it! – CLICK HERE
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FASHANNE TAKES FLIGHT AT EAST MIDLANDS AIRPORT
Designs by finalists of FASHANNE – Fashion Designers of the Future Awards have been unveiled as part of a permanent exhibition at East Midlands Airport. The stunning 24-piece photography display shows off the designs created by final-year fashion and textile students from Universities that have participated in these prestigious awards over the years. Full article
Fashanne
Fashion is so much more than clothes. It’s about creativity, it’s about the way we think, the aspirations we harbour, the way we live and the way we want to live. And that’s why Fashanne exists – to give the next generation the chance to not only showcase THEIR creativity but also take who they are and who they want to become to those world class brands, manufacturers and retailers that will be their future. Enabling mentoring and internships with leading companies from the world of fashion and textiles, we help build long-term sustainable connections in a fiercely competitive industry as well as helping future proof established brands with a pipeline of new generation designers.
Since our first show in 2016, and all through Covid, more than 350 students have passed through our awards programme, with winners taking up internships and many going on to employment within the fashion industry. Making those all-important connections early on is incredibly powerful and we are proud to play such an important role in our young designers’ fledgling careers.
A huge thank you to all the sponsors, universities, judges and other incredibly supportive organisations and individuals without whom so much of this would not be possible.
Fashanne 2025 Highlights
Please check out the Fashanne 2025 page
“From the fantastical to the exquisite – the talent on show was there for all to see!”
Fashanne 2025 was our eighth awards and our sixth live event (as we went online for 2020 and 2021), and the students’ designs were outstanding! The whole evening celebrating these fashion designers of the future proved a great success.
Congratulations to the winners:
The Athleisure Design Award sponsored by Canterbury
Scarlet Taylor (Nottingham Trent University)
The Commercial Design Award sponsored by ITL – Intelligent Label Solutions
Holly Doyle (De Montfort University)
The Designer Menswear Award sponsored by Paul Smith’s Foundation
Marcel Wargocki (De Montfort University)
The Footwear & Accessory Design Award sponsored by Pentland Brands
Jamie O’Grady (De Montfort University)
The High Street Menswear Award sponsored by Next
Maya Higgins (Nottingham Trent University)
The ASBCI Innovation Award
Mara James (De Montfort University)
The Knitwear Design Award sponsored by Waring Brooke
Lucy George (Nottingham Trent University)
The Sustainability Award
Ava Wolsey (Nottingham Trent University)
The Textile Design Award
Charlotte Oliver (Nottingham Trent University)
The Womenswear Design Award sponsored by Next
Maisie Bodington (Nottingham Trent University)
The People’s Choice Award sponsored by East Midlands Chamber
Nicole Tikolo (Nottingham Trent University) with 21,758 votes out of 48,000.
The Daniel Hanson Award for Excellence
Marcel Wargocki (De Montfort University)
A big thank you to Patrick Grant for being our lead judge and co-host for the evening. The judges: Rachel Varela, Sophie Etches, Hayley Solomon, Giuliano Martello, Katie Greenyer, Jonathan Pedley, Dr Julie King, Samantha Brooke, Garry Knox, Zeph Logan and Nicholas Hanson for their efforts and expertise, we know they had a very hard job choosing the winners.
Thank you to our fantastic sponsors: NEXT, Paul Smith’s Foundation, Pentland Brands, ITL- Intelligent Label Solutions, ASBCI, Waring Brooke, East Midlands Chamber, Canterbury, Print 4, Leicester College, Daniel Hanson.
Thank you to the universities: Nottingham Trent University, De Montfort University and Birmingham City University.
The awards was made even more special by our wonderful guest models – Tomasz Wisniewski (participant of 11 reality TV shows, public vote winner ‘Top Model UK’, winner ‘Total Wipeout UK’) and Annabel Mae (actress, model).
WORKSHOPS
As part of the Fashanne Programme, we are hosting a number of Workshops with our Sponsors to give the students invaluable insights into the industry. These are exclusively available to all our participating universities.
The first 3 workshops are with Next. Q&As with our judges – Zeph Logan (Womenswear) and Jonathan Pedley (High Street Menswear) – and also with Ria Kenney who is a Buyer at Next.
Workshop 4 is all about labelling – Q&A session with Hayley Solomon, Group Brand & Marketing Director, ITL Group. Hayley is the judge for the Commercial Award.
Workshop 5 is now available – Q&A with Giuliano Martello, Menswear Coordinator, Paul Smith. He has worked at Paul Smith for over 30 years and gives some great insights and also shares what he is looking for when judging this year’s entries for the Designer Menswear Award.
Gold Sponsors
Universities
