News

RadiciSpandex announces student winners of 10th annual design contest

April 27, 2010

Gastonia, NC, April 27, 2010 --- RadiciSpandex Corporation on April 22 celebrated Jeffrey Chow, creative director for contemporary womenswear label Poleci, as the honoree designer judge for the tenth annual edition of “Stretch to the Future,” one of the longest-running fashion design competitions sponsored by a fiber company. RadiciSpandex Marketing Manager Kim Hall presented Chow the “Stretch to the Future” Award during a judging session held at Kent State University’s New York design studio to determine the winners of this year’s competition, held for the fourth consecutive year with the junior class design students of the university’s Fashion School.

 

Chow led the panel of apparel industry experts, which included members of the charitable organization The Underfashion Club (UFC), which returned for a third year as sponsor of the contest’s lingerie award. The judging panel selected scholarship winners in the categories of eveningwear, activewear, swimwear, lingerie and a Grand Prize Overall.

 

Winning top honors in eveningwear was Samantha Hawkins, who also won the Grand Prize for an elegant black gown created in stretch fabrics donated by Guilford Performance Textiles and McMurray Fabrics. Bethany Clark took the activewear prize for her garment made of fabrics from McMurray and Polartec while the swimwear prize went to Ashley Gerber’s corsetlike two-piece suit constructed of fabrics donated by Guilford and McMurray. Phillip Fry emerged as the lingerie category winner with a bra-and-panty set featuring fabrics donated by Polartec and TDB Tecidos.

 

This year’s winners were selected from a field of 51 students --- 20 more than last year’s entrants. The students competed with garments designed in stretch fabrics containing RadiciSpandex RadElast® spandex donated by ABC Elastic Corp., Contempora Fabrics, Cyber Knit Fabrics, Darlington Fabrics, Guilford Performance Textiles, McMurray Fabrics, Monte Textil S.A., Polartec, Rentex, Sextet Fabrics, and TDB Tecidos.

 

In addition to Chow, the judging panelists included RadiciSpandex Corp. Marketing Manager Kim Hall, Allison Spahr, Global Director of Design, Polartec; Ruth Finley, Publisher, Fashion Calendar; Mark Lazarus, Vice President, Technical Fabric Development, Sustainability and Innovation, A&H Sportswear; Roseanne Morrison, Fashion Director, The Doneger Group; Menachem Katz, President, Cyber Knit Fabrics; Augusta Smargiassi, Senior Deputy Trade Commissioner, Italian Trade Commission; Laura Parzych, Product Development Manager, Darlington Fabrics; Debbie Lakis, Intimate Apparel Designer, Warnaco, Inc.; and Vivienne Lee, Design Director, Warnaco, Inc.

 

Created in 1999, the “Stretch to the Future” Design Scholarship Competition inspires the creative development of design students while educating them about the technical aspects of garment construction using fashion fabrics containing a highly technical fiber such as RadElast® by RadiciSpandex. Each year, RadiciSpandex invites a well-known designer to head up the “Stretch to the Future” judging panel of apparel industry experts. Previous recipients of this honor include Betsey Johnson, Dana Buchman, Nicole Miller, Nanette Lepore, Carmen Marc Valvo and Marc Bouwer, among others.

 

About Jeffrey Chow and Poleci
Jeffrey Chow, born in Hong Kong, Central St Martin’s MA student with honours, moved to New York in the early 90’s and began his career with Marc Jacobs at Perry Ellis where he worked as a sportswear designer for three years. He then followed with a stint at Espirit International as Creative Director and later at Tommy Hilfiger, designing the Red Label Collection for all runway shows and finally worked with Julio Espada at Pucci in LVMH as the Senior Designer for revamping the foremost fashion house in Florence, Italy. Chow created his own namesake line, Jeffrey Chow, in 2003. Last year, Chow became Creative Director for Poleci, the premier contemporary designer label for women that bridges Contemporary and Couture. Poleci is distributed domestically and internationally through high-end department stores and specialty stores, including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Seibu, Harvey Nichols and C.K. Tang. Poleci also operates flagship stores in New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

 

About Kent State University
Since its founding as a teacher-training school in 1910, Kent State has become an engine for economic, cultural and workforce development in the region and beyond as one of the premiere Ohio colleges. The university also has earned acclaim for applying new knowledge to address the needs of the communities it serves and society as a whole through a vast array of continuing education courses and much more. In addition to its campus in Kent, OH, Kent State University’s fashion school, which was founded in 1983, has two outpost studios --- one in Florence, Italy, and the recently opened New York City garment district location. Fashion students have the opportunity to study abroad or in New York City for one semester in either studio.

 

About The Underfashion Club

A not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) charitable organization, the Underfashion Club was established in 1958 to provide intimate apparel industry leaders with a forum to exchange information and ideas, a platform to discuss industry needs and problems, and a way of establishing the intimate apparel market as a vital aspect of the fashion industry.

 

About RadiciSpandex Corp. and RadiciGroup

Based in Gastonia, NC, RadiciSpandex Corp., maker of RadElast® spandex fiber, is a U.S. subsidiary of RadiciGroup, an international fibers conglomerate. With 3,700 employees worldwide and 2008 consolidated sales of EUR 957 million, RadiciGroup is one of Italy’s leading chemicals multinationals, a diversified group specializing in chemicals, plastics and synthetic fibres. One of the Group’s key strengths is the synergistic vertical integration of its polyamide production chain. Attention to our customers' requirements, the desire to foresee their needs, to supply them with quality, made-to-measure products, as well as continuous innovation, research, development, and the constant expansion of our product range. These are RadiciGroup's winning strategies. RadiciGroup products are exported all over the world and are widely used in applications such as apparel, sports, furnishings, automotive, electric/electronics and household appliances. For more information on RadiciSpandex and RadiciGroup, visit www.radicispandex.com and www.radicigroup.com