Covent Garden, London

Covent Garden’s iconic Flower Cellars venue was the setting for an October 2009 fashion party studded with the industry’s great and good. They gathered to witness the collections of the four finalists of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden, all of whom were looking to secure first prize and the £100,000+ worth of support that the winner receives, plus a coveted slot at London Fashion Week in September 2010.

The judging panel, chaired by Donatella Versace and made up of industry big-hitters such as Antoni Burakowski (Designer, Antoni and Alison), Joshua Schulman (CEO of Jimmy Choo) and Natalie Massenet (Chairman and Founder of NET-A-PORTER.COM), found it a tough call but eventually nominated JENA.THEO (design duo Jenny Holmes and Dimitris Theocharidis), praising their forward-thinking collection.

Dimitris Theocharidis said: ‘I feel amazing, it has been a great platform, the mentoring and support was incredible. We feel really secure having the Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden support to help us make our next collection.”

Using Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden as a yardstick, British fashion’s future is bright.

Image credited to Nilu Izadi