Supima Design Competition 2013

Fashion Week let the students take the stage with the sixth annual Supima Design Competition, held at Lincoln Center on September 5th. Founded in 1954, Supima has since established itself as America’s luxury cotton producing lustrous, strong and soft cotton threads picked from pima cotton fields in the U.S. For this year’s competition, Supima partnered with four of America’s top design schools, with each school nominating two graduating seniors as finalists to be judged by a panel of industry professionals such as Janie Bryant, Douglas Hannant, Fern Mallis, Buxton Midyette, Rachel Zoe, Jessica Stam, and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson.

The design challenge required students to rethink traditional uses for fabrics such as denims, knits, corduroy, twill, and shirting and translate them into collections for women’s eveningwear. Each student’s designs were judged on their originality, execution, as well as the student’s ability to showcase Supima’s luxury cotton. At the end of the show, host Rachel Zoe announced Morgan Selin from the Rhode Island School of Design as the winner of the competition with a $10,000 cash prize. With a collection that aimed to create sheen and reflective garments that resembled jewelry, Morgan’s designs certainly helped her catch the eyes of the judges and the fashion world at large.