H&M has announced the eight finalists who will be competing for the highly-covetable H&M Design Award 2013.
Open to students across 19 design schools in Europe, the award, not only offers up career-boosting industry recognition, but also a €50,000 cash prize, a sponsored catwalk show during Stockholm’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and a money-cant-buy instore collaboration with H&M.
The finalists from Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands and the UK are all vying to impress judges including H&M’s head of design Ann-Sofie Johannson, fashion designer Jonathan Saunders, stylist Leith Clark and fashion blogger Hanneli Mustaparta.
The UK finalist has been named as Central Saint Martins’ fashion student Maia Bergman. With a collection that aims to be “extremely girly but with a messy grunge feel,” Maia’s pieces take inspiration from the “matchy-matchy” 90s stylings of Versace supermodels and Stephen Sprouse’s “uptown sophistication with a downtown punk sensibility.”
Watch Maia’s Spring Summer 2013 collection here,
Along with the winner of the H&M Design Award to be announced on January 29th, a runner up – as voted for by you – will win an internship at Jonathan Saunders’ London studio. Vote here, designaward2013.hm.com