Bosham designer’s River Island collection wins MTV fashion competition

Lucy Saunders’ winning eight-piece River Island clothing collection was showcased online at the close of London Fashion Week on Tuesday, accompanied by an exclusive performance by pop star Griff.

The talented 24-year-old triumphed over entrants from 21 fashion schools in the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and Australia to carry off top honours in the competition run by MTV in collaboration with the British Fashion Council, River Island and ICEBERG.

The competition challenged candidates to design a line inspired by MTV that merged music, fashion and sustainability.

Lucy said: “I developed garments in line with the MTV brand, which is bold, fun and exciting, while the competition also asked entrants to create pieces with sustainability, size inclusivity and gender neutrality in mind, which are all also important considerations for me as a designer.”

Lucy used old spinnaker sails from her parents’ boats as the inspiration for her original catwalk creations.

Her designs included vibrant jumpsuits, billowing sail skirts and hoodies with islet details and ropes to secure them.

The pieces could be dressed up or down and were adjustable so they could be worn in different ways.

She said: “I looked at all the details in my catwalk pieces, for example the islets, zigzag stitching and colour blocking, and created a more relaxed clothing line that I thought River Island customers would want to wear.

“There are hoodies paired with colour-blocked joggers, cycling shorts with graphic prints and unisex T-shirts, all sustainably produced with organic cotton and prints that are screen printed.”

Five finalists showcased their catwalk designs at London Fashion Week in September before Lucy was selected by industry leaders to adapt her creations into a commercial collection now being sold by River Island.

She said: “I’m thrilled to see my clothes in River Island with my name on them, and it’s so exciting that people will be buying and wearing them.

“That is the best part of being a designer – seeing your work on people and hopefully making them feel good.”

Lucy, who now lives in London after graduating from Kingston School of Art with a BA (Hons) in fashion last summer, works as a designer for Fila UK’s sportswear brand – and she will also get the opportunity to do an internship with ICEBERG’s creative director James Long as part of her prize.

David Frizzell, Lucy’s course leader at Kingston, said: “As well as working very creatively with the MTV logo, Lucy embraced relevant issues and was focused on using repurposed and recycled fabrics, which is something we emphasize at Kingston School of Art as part of a responsible design context.

“Lucy is an outstanding talent. Her artwork and levels of creativity are some of the best I have seen and she has a great future ahead of her.”

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