The British Fashion Council have announced the names of three exceptional fashion students awarded scholarships by the BFC Educational Foundation to enable them to study on MA fashion courses.
Benny Andallo from Central Saint Martins will stay on at CSM to study MA Fashion Menswear; Gabriella Sardena from Manchester School of Art will study the MA Fashion Textiles course at CSM; and Shaun Harris from Kingston University will study MA Fashion Womenswear at the Royal College of Art.
These three students will follow in the footsteps of London design stars Erdem Moralıoğlu and Aitor Throup, who were awarded the same scholarship in 2002 and 2004 respectively. “I was honoured to receive one of the scholarships for my own Masters degree at the Royal College of Art, and was equally honoured to be asked by Sarah Mower and the BFC to be on the panel to help select this year’s recipients,” says Aitor Throup. “We saw an incredible amount of talent and it’s encouraging to know that the support has gone to such deserving candidates, I wish them all success with their studies and their careers. We are all excited about their future and I’m looking forward to following their progress,” he added.
“With the news that UK fashion colleges are some of the top in the world, it is more important than ever that we are able to support the exceptionally talented students who would otherwise be significantly held back, or deterred, by the high cost of fees and living expenses attached to studying fashion,” explains BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent Sarah Mower.
A release from the British Fashion Council also emphasised the huge cost of university education — £27,000 for an undergraduate degree, explaining that it is, “acutely important to support the most promising talent through the additional expense of taking an MA”. Speaking about the donors who support the Foundation, Mower says, “In the long term, they will underpin the vibrancy of British fashion culture and ensure the success of the UK’s fashion industry in the future.”