TEXPRINT 2016 Winners announced at Premiere Vision Designs in Paris

The British fashion industry is a force to be reckoned with, because it contributes £28 billion to the UK economy and provides employment for some 880,000 people.  The recently concluded London Fashion Week also highlighted that the UK is where design talents are trained and nurtured, and the UK design graduates' skills are among the most sought-after in the global fashion industry.

The 24 finalists of the Texprint awards 2016 with Martin Leuthold in the centre.
© Lucia Carpio 2016

Thus every year when the London-based 30-year-old charity TEXPRINT take their annual brood of design finalists to Paris to take part in the September edition of the Premiere Vision Designs show (formerly Indigo, and an integral part of Premiere Vision Paris), the global fashion, textile and interiors industries not only take notice but flock to their exhibition booths to "shop" for new designs and possibly look for potential new talent to recruit.

This year, as in previous Septembers, much excitement of the three-day show in Paris (September 13–15) was centred on the second day of the fair when the 2016 award prize winners from the 24 finalists were announced, and honoured in a presentation ceremony.

Guest of  Honour Martin Leuthold of Jakob Schlaepfer (centre) with the 2016 Texprint winners (l to r) Megan Clarke, Grace Lomas, Chloe Frost, Jacob Monk and Isla Middleton. 
© Lucia Carpio 2016

      

This time the prizes were presented by  Martin Leuthold, Artistic Director of Swiss company Jakob Schlaepfer, renowned for its innovative textiles for both the fashion and interiors worlds, and the name behind many of the sumptuous textiles that grace glamorous showcases ranging from the couture catwalks of Paris to the red carpets of the Oscars. In her introduction at the ceremony, Joanna Bowring Sponsorship Diretor of Texprint said fashion houses love working with the Swiss company because of its ultra-creative ‘blue sky’ approach – everything is possible in the world of Jakob Schlaepfer.  Leuthold also added later that this was his 80th PV that he had attended, since 1976.  He had previous won the PV Imagination Prize in 2009, and also the Grand Prix Design at the Swiss Federal Design Awards in 2013.

Commenting on the 24 finalists in th 2016 competition, Texprint Creative Director Peter Ring-Lefevre said the designers are individually very different, and he loved that there are very traditional hand-drawn skills applied to fashion and interior.  "It’s very heartening to see because these are skills we don’t want to lose,”

Texprint's Sponshorship Director Joanna Bowring and Texprint's Creative Director Peter Ring-Lefevre.
© Lucia Carpio 2016

So here are the 2016 TEXPRINT winners :-

Texprint Fashion Award:-  Grace Lomas

Texprint Pattern Award:-  Megan Clarke 

Texprint Colour Award:- Chloe Frost

Texprint Interiors Award:- Isla Middleton 

The Woolmark Company Award:-  Jacob Monk

Texprint Pattern Award winner Megan Clarke (above)'s digital and screen printed designs are vibrant patterns with inspiration from hidden courtyards of traditional Moroccan riads, as seen also below
 with emphasis on an abstract hand drawn aesthetic.
© Lucia Carpio 2016

© Lucia Carpio 2016

Texprint Fashion Award winner Grace Lomas at her stand wihere her winning work are showcased (above and below) featuring tactile knitted and woven designs using unusual materials in tonal monochrome colourways to create highly wearable kinetic and sculptural knitwear. 
Photos@ © Lucia Carpio 2016

Texpriunt Interior Awards winner
Isla Middleton's print designs explore and celebrate
the beauty of plant forms through the use
of a variety of  image patterning.
© Lucia Carpio 2016

The judges this year who made their choices back in July at Texprint London  were Nadia Albertini, a couture embroiderer; Fi Douglas, founder of Glasgow’s bluebellgray; Pip Jenkins, head of design at British knitwear brand John Smedley; and Andrew Croll, senior design recruiter for sportswear giant Nike.


The Woolmark Company Award was judged at the PV Designs Texprint pavilion, participated by Aline Galimberti, chief designer of established fabric brand Dormeuil, and menswear desiger Jonathan Christopher.

Woven designs inspired by protective wear and the protection fround in nature (above and below) won Jacob Monk the Woolmark Company Award.
© Lucia Carpio 2016

Creative work incorporating
merinoo wool by  Jacob Monk won him the
Woolmark Prize winner.
© Lucia Carpio 2016

With support from Texprint’s experienced team and industry patrons and matrons on how to market and sell their work, the 24 designers reported commercial success during the Premiere Vision Designs fair in Paris held 13 - 15 September, with many of them selling their designs and even original work to industry leaders and international fashion brands.  Mixed media design winner Grace Lomas, who won the Texprint Fashion Award, told organisers that she was thrilled by the quality of the companies she was meeting. “One moment it’s Marc Jacobs, the next it’s Nike. People are so curious to see our work. They say this is the best area of PV. Maybe it’s because we are working without the constraints of the more established companies.”

Following PV Paris, two of the Texprint designers – Amy Smith and Jacob Monk – will be joining the major Asian show, Intertextile Shanghai (October 11–13).
Seven of the designers are also preparing for extended internships in Como this autumn, where Texprint has long-running connections with the finest Italian mills.
To read about some of the success of previous winners, click here.