Award Worth £25,000 Over Three Seasons#
The accolades keep pouring in for emerging Chinese fashion designer
Yifang Wan#
, who was recently announced as the winner of Vauxhall Fashion Scout's Merit Award for the autumn/winter 2013-14 season. Previous winner of the Central Saint Martins L'Oreal Professional Award in 2010, Wan is perhaps best known for her MA graduation collection, which showed at London Fashion Week and was worn by Lady Gaga on her most recent Asia tour.
As Martyn Roberts, director of Vauxhall Fashion Scout, said of Wan's award, "Yifang Wan is set to join the ranks of leading fashion innovators in London. Her square-cut shapes, coupled with quality fabrics, lend themselves to clever draping and sensational design. Her contemporary design aesthetic has been grabbing attention of leading buyers." The Merit Award is worth £25,000 (US$40,663) distributed over the course of three seasons, and with it comes a sponsored catwalk show and exhibition for Yifang Wan at Vauxhall Fashion Scout during London and Paris Fashion Week. Vauxhall Fashion Scout will be held at the Freemason's Hall in Covent Garden in London from February 15-19, 2013.
A native of Xiamen, Wan has attracted steady media coverage since her days at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design – alma mater of other Chinese designers like Vega Zaishi Wang, Yang Du and Uma Wang – where Wan received both a BA and MA in womenswear. Wan has won the admiration of V Magazine, Dazed & Confused, Vogue, 1883, Wonderland, Disegno, TstylesU, the daily Telegraphy, London Evening Standard, the Independent Monday, and the London Global Times.