UEL students' winning design showcased at New York fashion week

Speaking about the competition, 22-year-old Ivaylo said, "Winning this competition means so much to me. It's absolutely amazing. Seeing people that I don't even know wearing something that I have designed is really satisfying.

"It has given me more self-esteem and helped me believe that what I am doing is good enough to be sold to potential customers. It's fantastic.

"I was really inspired by the whole idea of That Gorilla Brand donating money from sales to The Gorilla Organisation. It’s such an honour to be part of that awareness drive."

As part of the competition, fashion design students from the School of Arts and Creative Industries were asked to work in pairs to collaborate as a design and marketing team to create their Emerging T for the 2022 collection. The t-shirt design had to work with the brand's signature Gorilla outline. Alongside this, a collaborating marketing student had to create a marketing campaign and social media plan for the launch.

Working on the project taught Sindy some valuable lessons. She explained, "It made me realise that in this industry you have to think big. I believe that our design and marketing campaign was selected as the winner because our idea was not only to get the customer to like the design but also to get to know the brand and its values in depth. I learned that it is important to be confident.

"There were many times in the competition I was doubting about my work, thinking that it was not good enough, but as I went on, I realised that unless you believe in yourself and your ideas how can you expect other people to."

The winning design features a bold retro print design, which will feature in That Gorilla Brand's 2022 limited edition collection. The winning duo have also landed a cash prize of 3,000 euros split to spend on their studies.