INVISTA’s CORDURA brand gave away the Durable Design Award to Thomas Davidson from the Manchester Fashion Institute, for his cutting-edge workwear of the future, at the recently held Professional Clothing Awards (PCS) Vision 2018 international student design competition, in London, UK.
The PCA VISION 2018 awards exist to inspire and honour best-in-class innovative, stylish and functional workwear, corporate clothing and PPE designs of the future from textile and fashion students.
This year, the contest was opened to students from participating universities and colleges across Europe for the first ever pan-European contest. Students were challenged to develop unique designs that not only help meet the needs of the workers but enhance their ability to perform the job as well.
The CORDURA Durable Design Award is a special designation to acknowledge the student designer who best demonstrates a 360-degree approach to functional workwear. The design had to reflect a thorough understanding of the challenges faced on the jobsite and present innovative durable solutions to meet the needs of the worker. Thomas Davidson’s design was creative, commercial, and practical for professional tradesman.
The overall winning design was from Summer Gill from Bedford College. Her design created with airport personnel in mind demonstrated creativity, versatility, professionalism, and technical understanding of the job requirements.
Filipe Santana of the University of Lisbon, Portugal and recipient of the PCA VISION 2018 YKK Award presented a design intended to be worn by sports coaches or personal trainers in a health club chain with functionality and versatility for employee roles both indoors and outdoors. He joined the competition for the opportunity to expand his limitations as a designer.
Cindy McNaull, global CORDURA brand and marketing director said, “It’s been an honour to once again collaborate with the well-renowned Professional Clothing Awards during its 10th anniversary year. Through student design competitions, we often discover that it’s the students who teach us the most, giving us the opportunity to see our technologies come to life in new and innovative ways because of their unique and fresh perspectives.”
