Winner of the 2009 FAD Competition

UK fashion students in ‘galactic’ showcase at London Fashion Week

Nottingham Trent fashion student, Ana Belen Meroño, beat hopefuls from universities and colleges across the UK to become this year’s winner of the prestigious FAD Competition, which took place atVauxhall Fashion Scout on Tuesday 24th February.

The young designer, originally from Madrid, impressed the jury with her sophisticated and highlypolished designs. Her first garment was a structured jacket featuring a digital Op-Art print, while the second outfit paired a cosmic cloud print dress with ‘armour’ inspired layering. Ana’s designreceived a unanimous vote from this year’s jury panel, winning her £2,000 and a work placement with designer and FAD Frontline member, Paul Costelloe, who was there on the evening to present the winning prize.

Felicity Baggett, also of Nottingham Trent was announced as one of the two runners up. Her wearable menswear collection was inspired by space suits, featuring subtle planetary patterns and vacuum moulded spheres. Camilla Kennedy, Birmingham City University, was awarded the second runner up prize. Both students received £1,000 and an industry placement with designers Margaret Howell and Religion respectively.

Fourteen finalists from ten UK universities/colleges took part in the show, presenting a collection inspired by this year’s brief: ‘Urban Holographic’. For 2009 FAD asked students to explore the concept of Retrofuturism and space tourism; looking back at 1960’s curved design and films such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ to create fashionable ‘uniforms’ for galactic hosts/hostesses. In the final each student presented two outfits, drawing inspiration from the planets and solar system for colour, print and embellishment.

The event is heavily supported by the industry, and this year’s jury encompassed both fashion experts and space specialists including: Dolly Jones, Editor Vogue.com; Esther Lutman, Curator of The Space Age exhibition at the V&A; Jeremy Curtis of the British National Space Centre; Martyn Roberts, Director of Vauxhall Fashion Scout and one of 2009’s hottest new designers, William Tempest.

2009 FAD Competition & Awards

Fashion Students prepare for galactic debut at London Fashion Week Fourteen fashion students have beaten hopefuls from 24 universities/colleges nationwide to win a coveted place in the 2009 FAD Competition final, set to take place at Vauxhall Fashion Scout on 24 th February 2009.

The fourteen finalists from universities such as Nottingham Trent, Central Saint Martins and De Montfort, will present a collection inspired by this years challenging brief: ‘Urban Holographic’.

For 2009 FAD asked students to explore the concept of Retrofuturism and space tourism; looking back at 1960’s curved design and films such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ to create fashionable ‘uniforms’ for galactic hosts/hostesses. In the final each young designer will present two outfits, drawing inspiration from the planets and solar system for colour, print and embellishment.

This year’s jury encompasses a dynamic panel of fashion experts and space specialists including Dolly Jones, Editor Vogue.com, Esther Lutman, Curator of The Space Age exhibition at the V&A, Jeremy Curtis of the British National Space Centre, Martyn Roberts, Director of Vauxhall Fashion Scout and one of 2009’s hottest new designers, William Tempest. The winners of the FAD Competition will be announced on the evening of the event with the first prize winner receiving £2,000 and a top industry placement.

The two runners up will receive £1,000 each, as well as a work placement.

FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct) is a creative charity supporting young people to bridge the gap between industry and education. Now in its 8th year, the FAD Competition is dedicated to highlighting and supporting undergraduate talent. Past FAD finalists now work for companies such as Coast, All Saints and Harrods, as well as high profile designers Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Web users to write "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxies"

How many arms does a spiral galaxy have? Can you spot a galaxy with a "peanut" bulge? Or how about a galactic merger? Answers to these and other strange questions will be provided by ordinary web users who, by working together, have proven to be just as good at galaxy-spotting as professional astronomers.


The new initiative is a follow-up to the highly successful Galaxy Zoo
project that enabled members of the public to take part in astronomy
research online. But whereas the original site only asked members of the
public to say whether a galaxy was spiral or elliptical, and which way
it was rotating, Galaxy Zoo 2 asks them to delve deeper into 250,000 of
the brightest and best galaxies to search for the strange and unusual.

The Galaxy Zoo 2 website is launched on 17 February at www.galaxyzoo.org

"The first Galaxy Zoo provided us with a Rough Guide to the sky and now
we want our users to fill in all the details and create a real
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxies," said Dr Chris Lintott of Oxford
University, one of the founders of Galaxy Zoo.

Astronomers came up with the idea of getting online volunteers involved
because the human brain is still better at doing pattern recognition
tasks than a computer. What they had not expected was the huge
enthusiasm for the project; in the last 18 months 80 million
classifications of galaxies were submitted on one million objects at
http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ by more than 150,000 armchair astronomers from all
over the world.

Dr Kevin Schawinski of Yale University, another of Galaxy Zoo's founders
said: "The response from the public was absolutely overwhelming and,
with their help, we've been able to learn a lot about how galaxies
evolve and how they relate to their environment.
With the detail from Zoo 2, we'll be able to discover even more about
how galaxies work."

"Galaxy Zoo has given everyone with a computer an opportunity to
contribute to real scientific research. We want people to feel truly
involved in the project and keep them up to date with what we're doing
and with the results they're generating," said Dr Steven Bamford of the
University of Nottingham.

As with the original site people are free to look at and describe as
many galaxies as they like - even five minutes' work will provide a
valuable contribution. Galaxy Zoo 2 is intended to be even more fun as
galaxies are pitted against each other in "Galaxy Wars" (which one is
more spirally?) and users can compete against their friends to describe
more objects as well as record their best finds.

Proof that unusual discoveries can be made is the catalogue of merging
galaxies provided by users - more than 3000 of these rare cosmic
pile-ups have been caught in the act by Galaxy Zoo volunteers. The team
have already used the IRAM radio telescope in Spain's Sierra Nevada to
follow up the most exciting mergers, and are asking for more examples to
study.

"In this International Year of Astronomy, it's great to have so many
people looking at these beautiful image of galaxies from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey," said Professor Bob Nichol of the University of
Portsmouth, a member of the original Galaxy Zoo team. "No single
professional astronomer has ever looked at all these images and
sometimes astronomers miss the wonder of what they are. I think the
public get this better than us."

For more information visit http://www.galaxyzoo.org/ or the Galaxy Zoo blog http://www.galaxyzooblog.org/

Getting away from it all

The recession must be biting hard. The British Antarctic Survey's website buckled today under the weight of interest in its new recruitment campaign for chefs, electricians and plumbers on the planet's coldest continent - Antarctica.

Wait for me! The British Antarctic Survey employs more than just scientists - chefs, plumbers and electricians support the research community.

Amid the doom and gloom of financial crises and redundancies, the news has attracted much media interest.

An electrician already working at the survey's Rothera base on the Antarctic Peninsula, Tony McLaughlan, told the Cambridge News, 'It is really amazing being here. I never imagined that an ordinary bloke like me could end up working in Antarctica.'

'The people are great, the work is exciting. If anyone is wondering about applying for this kind of job I would say just do it,' he told GMTV.

He explained to John Humphrys on the BBC's Today programme what drove him to apply, 'The challenge. This has to be one of the extreme and toughest environments in the world.'

'It's not that cold at the moment - it's zero degrees. Last season it got down to -22,' he added.

But it is not as lonely as some people imagine. 'There are 60 to 70 people on base right now. At its peak it can be up to 100.'

Head of communications, Linda Capper, MBE, said, 'The thing that is most striking is the stunning scenery. You feel very small. You find yourself in this gigantic landscape where the horizon is a long way off and you can see icebergs the size of cathedrals. There are penguins and seals - it is just sensational.'

Contracts run from four to 18 months and salaries start at £23,000 a year. Accommodation, travel, clothing and food are provided.

Source: Planet Earth (NERC)

Sir David Attenborough talks to SSW at Number 10