Daily Front Row

2009 June 24

Donatella’s Darlings

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(NEW YORK) As if being named finalists of the coveted Fashion Fringe at Covent Gardens honor wasn’t enough, this year Elliot Atkinson, Yelena Smirnova, LD.DA's Dejan Agatonovic and Lidija Danilovic, and Go Tell Them's Jenny Holmes and Dimitris Theocharidis received an even more staggering prize--a date with Donatella Versace. The honorary chairperson of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden 2009, Versace invited the four labels’ designers to Milan for a whirlwind tour, where they attended the Spring 2010 Versace menswear show on Sunday, attended the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana party in the Royal Palace of Milan, and took a private tour of the Versace atelier.

This is the second year that Versace has chaired the program; this year’s judging panel also included Net-a-Porter’s Natalie Massanet, Jimmy Choo’s Joshua Schulman, Selfridges’ Anne Pitcher, Antoni and Alison’s Antoni Burakowski, Grazia’s Paula Reed, and London College of Fashion’s Roy Peach. They will participate in a comprehensive mentoring program in areas like finance, distribution, identity and branding, marketing, PR, the demands of the buying process, show production, trends and legal. Additionally, each will receive a budget, technical help, and studio space to help them create a capsule collection to be shown at London Fashion Week in September. The winner will receive £100,000 worth of funding and support for their first full collection, which will be shown at London Fashion Week in February 2010.