George at Asda Launches Graduate Fashion Week Designer Collection
LONDON, November 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ –
George Gold Award Winner Rory Longdon’s First Edgy Collection Hits
George.com and Selected Asda Stores
Rory Longdon, winner of the prestigious George Gold Award at Graduate
Fashion week in June 2011, sees the full fruit of his hard work as the
launch of his first high street collection goes on sale at George at Asda.
Rory won the opportunity to create a capsule Christmas knitwear
collection for George alongside a GBP20,000 cash prize, a 4 week paid
placement at George
[http://direct.asda.com/george/clothing/10,default ,sc.html ] and mentoring
sessions from Brand Director Fiona Lambert. Rory’s designs have now come to
life in an exclusive, limited, knitwear [http://direct.asda.com/george/womens/knitwear/D1M1G20C5,default,sc.html ]
collection inspired by his winning catwalk designs.
“It’s a great feeling to have launched a collection for such a large
supermarket, but very surreal too. It’s hard to believe people will be
buying pieces with my name on them every day. It’ll be a weird but amazing
feeling to see someone wearing my designs on the street,” he said.
With Rory’s collection launch comes the announcement that George at Asda
will be the title sponsor of Graduate Fashion Week 2012. This will be the
second year running the brand supports the event, and will be continuing its
commitment to provide work experience placements for new graduates who
impress at the event.
George at Asda, Brand Director, Fiona Lambert commented: “It has been
fantastic to work with Rory and see his designs come to life in front of our
very eyes. Rory’s collection presents the opportunity to reach out to an
edgier and high-fashion led consumer as well as offering something new and
exciting to our loyal George shoppers. The range promises cutting edge
designs with both the wearability and affordability factors which George and
Rory are extremely proud of. George strives to nurture and develop young
talent across the fashion industry and so we are delighted to launch the
beginning of a very promising design career for Rory Longdon as well as to
announce our support for the second year by remaining the title sponsor of
Graduate Fashion Week 2012.”
Rory, 23 from West Hallam, has a wealth of background experience as a
Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles graduate from Nottingham Trent
University, and is now enjoying working at Italian fashion house Max Mara
before he embarks on an MA next year. It is clear his degree and GFW winning
collection has heavily influenced his George range with pieces including
chunky knit jumpers and dresses with matrix silver embellishment. Knitwear
is clearly Rory’s signature as he explains, “I enjoy being able to work on
the complete process with knitwear. From choosing the yarn, creating the
fabrics, to constructing the garment. The possibilities with knitwear are
endless.”
His designs have encapsulated a catwalk inspired feel within the high
street, boasting the benefit of being a wearable fashion range at an
affordable price which Rory welcomed for his first launch, “It wasn’t
difficult to encapsulate my signature look at an affordable price as there
were a lot of good options to choose from whilst developing the collection
for George. I’ve managed to create something very close to my original
runway collection for a fraction of the price.”
Rory’s exclusive, limited collection will be available in selected Asda
stores and online at George.com from November 21st and will retail from
GBP12-GBP20. Free collection from any Asda store when ordering online.
SOURCE Asda George
