Supima Presents: Supima Design Competition

This year we will be attending the fourth edition of Supima’s Annual Design Competition that will make its first time debut at the incomparable Lincoln Center as part of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. This year’s finalist was selected from graduating classes at America’s top four schools for fashion design. Upon selection, each finalist was assigned a faculty mentor and given premium denim, shirting and jersey from Supima’s top international mill partners. Before the live finale that will take place at Lincoln Center on September 8th at 1pm each design was evaluated by the judges in a separate session.

Meet the 2011 Judges:

Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Founder and Chief Merchandising Officer, of the Gilt Groupe
Coco Rocha, Model and Entrepreneur
Kevin Harter, Bloomingdale’s
Nicole Miller, Designer
Charlotte Ronson, Designer & DJ

Supima’s love and support for emerging designers is growing every season. As part of its commitment to emerging designers, Supima charges no entry fees and the fabrics that come from the Supima Mills that supply licensees for designers like Ralph Lauren, Agave, and Brooks Brothers are all donated free of charge. They also supply models, production, staging and publicity.

Meet the 2011 Finalist:

Amy Lynn Bittner, 23, Fashion Institute of Technology
Jusil Carroll, 34, Fashion Institute of Technology
Lorena Cuevas Restrepo, 23, Savannah College of Art and Design
MaRu Jung, 22, Pratt Institute
Marlow Larson, 22, Savannah College of Art and Design
Rachel Pullman, 23, Rhode Island School of Design
Dara N. Rosen, 23, Pratt Institute
Connie Weng, 22, Rhode Island School of Design

Each finalist will have to present and integrated capsule collection consisting five pieces of women’s evening wear. Each piece must consist of at least 70 % luxurious, extra-long staple Supima cotton. Each piece of evening wear represents one of the three categories of fabric for which Supima is best known for: fine-quality shirting; fine cotton jersey; and premium denim. Finalist will be judged on the originality and execution of their garments as well as how much they have capitalized on the strength and softness of the Supima cotton.