By Meera Majithia

A final year fashion design student from De Montfort University (DMU) has bagged the Young Designer of the Year award at the annual Clothes Show Live.
Twenty-two-year-old Shivani Chavda, originally from Harrow in London, won £1,000 prize money for herself and a further £1,000 donation for her university after winning the catwalk finals of the competition at the NEC in Birmingham.
Speaking about the win, she said: “It feels amazing to win and I’m hoping it will be a great boost for my career. The experience of working to a deadline for a life brief like this, and of being at the catwalk show was so fantastic.”
Shivani is inspired by the world around her and thinks some of her creativity comes from her family. She said: “My dad is a shoemaker and I had to cover a pair of shoes in fabric to match the dress I designed, so he’s especially proud of me and my mum’s over the moon.
“To me fashion is wearable art and I base my designs around this. I take inspiration from all around me and direct it into my work, ensuring that my ideas are new and innovative."
The brief for this year’s competition was to design a dress that draws inspiration from any country in the world and Shivani took elements of the Orient and incorporated it into her dress. The mixture of delicate beauty and strong shapes are the defining features of her design.
This is the second time in three years that the Young Designer of the Year title, which is open to fashion students from universities and colleges around the UK, has gone to a DMU student.

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