Gabriella describes her designs as “playful, eccentric, youthful yet sophisticated”.
Gabriella impresses to bag fashion scholarship
2 September 2015
British Fashion Council award for graduate
FASHION graduate Gabriella Sardena has been named as one of the recipients of the British Fashion Council’s annual scholarship.
The funding means that Gabriella, who also won Runway 15’s Best New Designer award earlier this year, will be able to study for an MA in Fashion Textiles at Central Saint Martins.
She is one of just three students in the country to be awarded the scholarship. Previous recipients include another Manchester School of Art graduate, Aitor Throup, who received funding in 2004 and went on to launch his own acclaimed menswear company and act as creative consultant at G-Star.
Applications were open to graduating students from member colleges of the BFC’s Colleges Council. Eleven shortlisted applicants were interviewed by a judging panel consisting of designer Aitor Throup, BFC Head of Communications Clara Mercer, artist Janet Lance Hughes and Sarah Mower MBE, American Vogue journalist and BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent.
Playful & eccentric
Gabriella was one of the Manchester School of Art students chosen to show at this year’s Graduate Fashion Week, and describes her designs as “playful, eccentric, youthful yet sophisticated”.
She said: “I feel really please and overwhelmed in achieving this scholarship from the BFC. Being supported by such a prestigious organisation is amazing, and encouraging. This scholarship will be a huge help that will continue to support me throughout my MA and achieve the full potential of my creativity.”
Joe McCullagh, Head of Design at Manchester School of Art, said: “We are all so pleased for Gabriella; the scholarship follows her recent international fashion catwalk success. This prestigious and highly competitive scholarship from the British Fashion Council Education Foundation is a great recognition of Gabriella’s creativity, talent and quality.
“It has been an incredible year for our fashion students with numerous major successes. This success also highlights the quality of our fashion teaching here in the art school. All the very best to Gabriella and we wish her every success for her fashion career!”
The BFC scheme is funded by donations from Coach, Marks & Spencer, Net-a-Porter and Eiesha Bharti Pasricha. This project has also been partly supported by HM Government with Employer Ownership funding through Creative Skillset.
