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UEL Fashion graduate inspired by spies to win Newham Designer Award 2008

Wednesday 30 July 2008

A University of East London (UEL) graduate is spying a successful start to his fashion career after winning the Newham Designer Award 2008 at the Mayor of Newham’s Show, held at Central Park, East Ham on 12-13 July.

Zaid Beegun (23), of Prince Regent, won the award for his collection, ‘Covert Communication’, inspired by the secretive world of espionage and created during the final year of his BA (Hons) degree in Fashion Design with Marketing. 

Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham, presented Zaid with a personalised glass trophy and £100 worth of John Lewis vouchers after he saw off competition from five other promising designers, all living, working or studying in the London Borough of Newham. 

Zaid said: “It’s wonderful to win this award – all the other designers have done really good work, so it feels great to have come out on top. I was approached to do the show after the organisers saw my collection on the catwalk at Graduate Fashion Week, which was another great event to be involved with.

“‘Covert Communication’ was inspired by the Alexander Litvinenko affair in the summer of 2007. I visited old MI5 offices and researched their methods of coded communication, then incorporated them into my work. For example, one of the jackets features a coded message on the outside, telling the reader to visit a Russian chemical plant, and a secret map of how to get to the plant in the lining.

“My degree at UEL was intense but really rewarding; we had to create six full pieces for our final collection, as well as a 17,000 word business plan. We constantly had to switch our minds from the rationality of marketing to the creativity of design, which gave us a great insight into both sides of the fashion industry."

Zaid is now working with fellow UEL graduate, Thomas Smith, to put together a five-piece menswear collection for the designer Kalikas Armour. Their new designs will be premiered at London Fashion Week in September.

The fashion tent at the Mayor of Newham’s Show was organised by 4fashionsense Newham (Ape Media). Alongside the main catwalk competition, the designs of local school and college pupils were displayed in a separate show. All models and make-up artists were recruited from the Newham community.

The 4fashionsense Newham (Ape Media) judging panel said: “Zaid was extremely professional and his collection was really outstanding. We were particularly blown away by the concept – it wasn’t just that the clothes were well-tailored, but that they had a deeper meaning and story.“

UEL has excellent links in the fashion industry and is renowned as a leading university for Fashion and Textiles. For further information, visit www.uel.ac.uk/ava or contact Nadia on 020 8223 2517.

For details and pictures contact Daniel Cherry: 020 8223 2194

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

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