Melissa Obika has been named as a winner of the British Council’s second International Residency Award
Student wins international British Council award
22 July 2015
Judges wowed by “intricate and colourful” collection
FASHION student Melissa Obika has been named as a winner of the British Council’s second International Residency Award for Graduate Fashion Week.
Manchester School of Art student Melissa will be given the opportunity to live in Casablanca for up to three weeks hosted by the Casa Moda Academy and local fashion experts. The award includes flights, accommodation, a daily subsistence allowance, a tailor-made programme and a grant for the production of a capsule collection.
London-born Melissa impressed the judges at this year’s Graduate Fashion Week to be named as one of the two winners of the award.
For her final collection, she drew on ideas found on a visit to New Zealand’s Waiotapu geothermal park to create a collection which she describes as “intricate and very colourful”.
Natural inspiration
Melissa said: “My final collection was inspired by the natural scenes I saw in New Zealand’s Waiotapu thermal park, because of the volcanic activity the natural surroundings were unusually textured, heavily layered and the colours were bright neons. As my work developed, I added ideas from sportswear trying to mix my unusual shapes to classic sportswear pieces.”
From an early age, Melissa enjoyed creating her own clothes.
She said: “I chose to study fashion because from an early age my hobby was to alter and add textiles to clothes. As I grew up I always excelled in art and textiles subjects so making and designing clothes came easily to me.”
The winners were selected on the quality of their work, the relevance of their practice to the residency and their awareness of the importance of cultural heritage and exchange in fashion.
Judges included Kendall Robbins, Fashion Programme Manager at the British Council; Niamh Tuft, International Fashion Showcase Manager at the British Council; Mouna Belgrini, freelance fashion journalist; last year’s winner Holly Jayne Smith, a representative from Casa Moda Academy; and a representative of Graduate Fashion Week.
To find out more about studying fashion at Manchester School of Art, click here.
