Lauren Smith wins George award at Graduate Fashion Week

The 23-year-old, from Edinburgh College of Art beat off hundreds of aspiring fashion designers with her designs that impressed the prestige panel of judges – including Roland Mouret, David Gandy, Todd Lynn, Henry Holland and George Brand Director Fiona lambert - and triumphed as the best designs in the show.

Following in the Gold Award winning footsteps of fashion royalty such as Stella McCartney, Julien MacDonald and Christopher Bailey, Lauren will be given a head-start in the retail industry, winning a four week fully paid internship at George House with George’s team of leading designers. 

In addition to this priceless break, she will also receive invaluable mentoring from George’s Brand Director, Fiona Lambert, plus a cool £20,000 cash prize to get their fashion career off the ground.

Furthermore, they will work with the in-house team at George to produce and stock her designs for George and George.com as part of the new G21 Talent label.  Lauren will be joined by six other graduates – to be announced in due course - to join the G21 Talent collective and design for George’s newest graduate fashion label. G21 Talent comprises of a series of limited edition, catwalk inspired collections designed by hand picked fashion designers from Graduate Fashion Week.

George has been committed to nurturing British design creativity since 2011, through its sponsorship of Graduate Fashion Week.  George has helped launch numerous careers and enhance the growth and development of a huge number of graduates.

Retailing exclusively in selected Asda stores nationwide, G21 Talent is available in the UK but also internationally and online across the UK and Europe at George.com. G21 Talent has already proven popular with the 2012 designs achieving sell out status across the UK.

Each graduate that designs for G21 Talent will learn the skills required to create exciting, fashion forward yet affordable mainstream designs for high-street retail.

Fiona Lambert, George Brand Director, commented: “We’ve had a fantastic week meeting all of the graduates and seeing their work. We’ve been genuinely amazed by the quality, creativity and professionalism of this year’s graduates.

"We chose Lauren as the George Gold Award winner because her designs reflected her character and showed real vision and craftsmanship. I’m looking forward to working with her and producing her range for George and George.com.”

Lauren Smith, George Gold Award winner 2013 added: “I am utterly overwhelmed and speechless to have been awarded the George Gold Award.  It was so unexpected and an amazing feeling to see my designs on the catwalk.  I can’t believe Roland Mouret spoke so highly of my designs, I’m thrilled.”

Graduate Fashion Week