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Student wins big at Danier awards

By Hayley Adam

Ryerson held the sixth annual Danier Design Challenge on Jan. 23, a competition between third-year school of fashion students showcasing self-made women’s leather garments.

Contest judges chose Joobo Shim as the best fashion designer among 10 other students.

As the winner, Shim will recieve $5,000 from Danier and will have his jacket sold at their stores.

“Honestly this whole event I’m just grateful for,” said Shim.

The contest – organized by the university and worldwide retailer Danier – seeks to promote “emerging talent” by displaying the top 10 designs by fashion students.

Robert Ott, chair of the school of fashion and panel judge, said Shim’s piece had “great illustration, well-thought out muslin [the first garment prototype].

He articulated his inspiration, had beautiful execution on the final garment and really embodied his design philosophy.” Judges on the panel included Ally Dean, fashion and beauty editor at HELLO! Canada, Danier merchandising director Jessica Butters and others.

According to the school of fashion’s website, winners that “thoroughly impress” judges can be given career opportunities.

“Competitions are an early training ground for students to see what life is like in the working world,” said Ott.

The challenge begins early first semester as third-year fashion students hand in illustrations of jacket designs to Danier. Based solely off of these sketches, Danier staff narrow down the designs to the top 15. This is furthermore narrowed down to 10 designers who begin constructing their jackets for the final competition.

At the event, Ott announced the top three winners. Dimitar Dangov placed third and Mickelli Orbe second. Initially, Shim was concerned about how his first leather garment would turn out.

“I had no confidence at the beginning of doing this event and it’s also my first time working with leather,” said Shim. “I put a lot of thought into the design and I’m glad there was a happy medium between Danier’s brand aesthetic and my own.”

His winning design focuses on being gender-neutral and has an emphasis towards geometric principles that he said are influenced by his interest in fine arts.

“Obviously, all of the finalists did an outstanding job and had their individual approaches in interacting with the judges,” said Ott. “[However] Joobo hit the right notes.”

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