LONDON FASHION STUDENTS UNVEILED AS RETAIL LEADERS OF THE FUTURE

Students from London's Fashion Retail Academy win global competition at World Retail Congress

Lisa Storrier, Arianna Wright, Julia Shipton and Michelle Hammon from London's Fashion Retail Academy were named the winners of the Retail Futures Challenge at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona last night (7 May 2009) during a prestigious ceremony at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

The London team faced fierce competition from students at the New York Fashion Institute of Technology and the Hong Kong Polytechnic but wowed judges with their post recession retail concept of www.updatemywardrobe.com. All three colleges gave strong and innovative presentations to leading industry experts at the Congress, including the judging panel which consisted of Phil Wrigley, Executive Chairman of New Look, Jim Stengel, CEO of Jim Stengel LLC and Former Global Marketing Officer at Proctor & Gamble, Vittorio Radice, CEO of La Rinascente and Bernie Brooks, CEO of Myer.

With 80 per cent of 18-21 year olds using social networking sites, www.updatemywardrobe.com would be developed as a one stop social networking site allowing customers to shop across retailers whilst chatting to friends and swapping outfit ideas. The concept also includes a swap shop for the environmentally friendly consumer which aims to reduce the amount of good clothing sent to landfill every year.

As with facebook, www.updatemywardrobe.com will be available as a mobile phone application and with near field technology it will allow shoppers to take pictures of garments in store and upload them onto their profile whilst out shopping to find out how the garment looks like with other garments in their wardrobe via their 'virtual me'.

Sir Philip Green, who spearheaded the launch of the Fashion Retail Academy in London, said: "The team's innovative retail concept 'updatemywardrobe.com' shows real understanding of how fashion retail is becoming increasingly interactive, and must be exciting with a point of difference, as well as ever changing great product, to keep ahead in a very competitive and challenging market.

Well done to them, and the tutors and industry mentors who helped them - it's a great credit to the Academy, less than three years since it launched, to win against such great institutions as those competing from Hong Kong and New York. This is an important example of how business working alongside education can nurture new talent into the Retail Industry worldwide."

Terry Green, chief executive of clothing for Tesco who mentored the London team added: "Their ideas are innovative, exciting and have great commercial potential."

Karen Dennison, Principal of the Retail Fashion Academy said: "At the Academy our main aim is to engage with the industry to help our students begin their careers and this competition has been a real platform to help springboard their careers.

What is great is how the industry has really engaged with the students, we've had CEO's, Managing Directors and Chair's coming over to speak to the team about the concept, how it was researched and how they arrived at the concept presented. The real success of this competition is that the team has been listened to and valued.

The Fashion Retail Academy concept is now ready to go live with financial backing demonstrating that the concept was realistic, showed understanding and demonstrated how to engage with the target demographics of 18-21 year olds."

The global competition challenged teams from the Fashion Institute of Technology (New York) The Fashion Retail Academy (London) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic (China) to present one new retail concept that they felt defines the future of the sector in 2012 - the post credit crunch era. The concepts had to be aimed at 18-21 year old shoppers and would consider the impact of the current economic climate on future consumer patterns and behaviours.

All three teams came up with ventures based on digital technology. The New York entry, Mint Fashion, was designed to "invigorate customers through the fusion of technology and fashion." Mint, a combined store and online operation, was focused around the integration of fashion and technology and included items such as "transformers" - clothing which can be modified according to temperature and use. Additional items included Bluetooth earrings, spray-on fabrics and changing rooms enabling shoppers to try items on virtually.

Hong Kong's entry - Dream our Dreams, Hug & Kisses is designed to change the shopping experience with products such as the RFID card which stores your data and is automatically scanned when you enter a store, enabling shop assistants to recognise and greet customers. Digital changing rooms allow customers to send pictures of themselves in outfits to friends for advice and digital display prices would change to reflect factors such as shoppers' stored loyalty points or other discounts.

The Retail Futures Challenge was created in association with Oracle, Li & Fung, Warnaco and Land Securities.

The World Retail Congress has welcomed more than 2,000 retail leaders since its launch in 2007, and has quickly established itself as one of the most important events in the retail calendar. This year, the discussions promise to be the most challenging yet, as retailers address a wide range of business critical issues, such as driving growth in international markets, the science behind innovation, the people agenda, e-commerce, the changing consumer and maximising business efficiencies.

The World Retail Congress is organised by Emap Ltd, in association with key sponsor, Deloitte.