IndiaPost.com - Indian student wins prestigious New Zealand award

NEW DELHI: NP Jayaraj, an Indian design student from Pearl Academy, New Delhi, won the prestigious WOW Factor Award on 21 September, in Wellington, New Zealand. Jayaraj won the WOW Factor Award given for the most innovative garment and was awarded a prize money of $ 5000. His collection, ‘The Weaver Finch Colony’ was a creative synthesis between art and fashion. Earlier, in April this year, the FDCI had short listed and sent entries of 18 young designers for review by the WOW Judges in New Zealand.

Out of these, the WOW Judges in New Zealand selected 8 Indian design students to showcase at the WOW event. Apart from the WOW Factor Award won by NP Jayaraj, the FDCI has also announced award money of Rs.30, 000 each for the three best Indian entries sent to WOW.

Travel and stay for these top three entries was sponsored by Tourism New Zealand Board. Besides NP Jayaraj, the other two top entries who won this prize money include R.S Rajasekran from NID for his collection the ‘Metal Petal’, and Jasmina & Satbir from NIFT, New Delhi & DCAC for their collection ‘I Explode’. The FDCI has officially tied up with the Montana World of Wearable Art (WOW), one of the most coveted fashion extravaganzas in the world, held each year in New Zealand, to promote and encourage Indian participation for the show.

This received an overwhelming response with young designers from across the country sending their entries for WOW® 2007. Of these, garments of eighteen finalists were sent to New Zealand for further scanning by the jury at WOW to showcase their designs at the WOW Show in New Zealand. Rathi Vinay Jha, Director General, FDCI said, "The design students have definitely done India proud in New Zealand yet again. The collection from India displayed creativity and went beyond the traditional concept of design and art.

The Montana World of WearableAr (WOW) is a globally renowned fashion event. This year, we saw an overwhelming response from institutes from India, who had sent in their entries. FDCI is proud to have partnered with Tourism New Zealand to create this opportunity for these talented students to showcase their creativity at such a prestigious platform." It may be noted here that last year also, two NIFT New Delhi students, Narresh Kukreja and Shivan Bhatia, were awarded the highly commended award for their entry – the ‘Bee Hive Bra’ in the Bizarre Bra Category. Says Suzie Moncrieff, Creator and Director of World of WearableArt, "On behalf of World of WearableArt, I am extremely pleased to be associated with the FDCI, as India has contributed tremendously with progressively innovative and fascinating design entries each year.