Success for skilful King’s Ely designers

June 26, 2020

Talented Fashion and Textiles students from King’s Ely are celebrating success in two exciting competitions.

Year 12 student, Paige Newell, and John-Oswald Crichton, who is in Year 11, have both been highly commended in this year’s Young Fashion Designer UK contest. Paige and John-Oswald submitted some outstanding fashion design ‘mood boards’ with supporting text, where they explored a decade of design by their chosen fashion designer. Paige chose Alexander McQueen and John-Oswald chose Christian Dior.

Launched in 2010, the annual Young Fashion Designer awards celebrate and showcase the work of Fashion and Textiles students from across the UK. Paige, 17, was highly commended in the age 17-18 category and John-Oswald, 16, was highly commended in the age 15-16 category. King’s Ely also enjoyed success in the 2019 awards when Sixth Form designer, Anna Pearce, achieved second place in the A Level Fashion Design category.

Just days after Paige and John-Oswald received their celebratory news, the skilful duo – and Year 12 King’s Ely student, Katie Wood – discovered that they had been selected to exhibit some of their fashion designs in the eagerly-anticipated Young Norfolk Arts Festival.

Young Norfolk Arts are organising ‘No space, every place’ – a virtual exhibition to celebrate the work of young artists and designers from across the region. Katie, John-Oswald and Paige are among fifty young people invited to take part in the virtual exhibition, which is running at www.youngnorfolkarts.org.uk from 2-6 July. Awards will then follow.

Alison Rhodes, Director of Art at King’s Ely, said: “We are all delighted for Paige, John-Oswald and Katie. Their success is not only a wonderful celebration of the impressive work they have produced but it will also prove extremely useful for their UCAS statements and interviews in the future.”

The Art Department at King’s Ely is a thriving, inspiring environment where all students are encouraged to engage fully with the state-of-the-art facilities available. The Department specialises in Fashion and Textiles, Fine Art, Sculpture and Photography, and students realise ambitious outcomes, regularly achieving some of the highest exam marks in the country. In 2018, King’s Ely also won the Art and Craft Award at the prestigious Education Business Awards.

To discover more about opportunities at King’s Ely, go to: www.kingsely.org