Zahra Pourfard scoops Swarovski Young Designers Award

Zahra's crepe satin white dress beat 22 other students from top UAE and Qatar-based fashion and design schools. Participating schools included Preston University, The Design Academy, MAHE Manipal - Dubai campus, Pearl Design Centre and Virginia commonwealth University, Qatar.

"This is a great achievement for me and I'm extremely happy to have won this prestigious award," said Zahra.

"Winning this gives me great confidence and encourages me to become one of Middle East's top designers."

The entries were judged against four different criteria including presentation, interpretation, originality and creative use of fabrics and colours. Judges of the award represented all facets of the design industry.

"This prestigious award certainly contributes to the success of the bride show and nurtures new talent," said Charlotte Proudman, Event Manager, The Bride Show Dubai 2005.

"This award was the prefect finale to this spectacular four-day event."

Competing students were given access to the vast range of crystal fashion accessories produced by Swarovski, one of Austria's leading jewellery accessories names.

"The standard this year was extremely high and all the students did an excellent job in keeping with 'The Lavish Twenties in Europe' theme," said Grace Ghunaim, Communications & CSC Manager, Swarovski Middle East.

"This award is important in giving these young designers the right exposure and encouragement. It will also help launch careers of aspiring new designers."

Other winners include: 1st Runner-Up- Fozia Sami from Preston University, 2nd Runner-Up-Tanya Vaswani from Pearl Design Centre and the Innovation Award went to Fatima Mohammad Ali who was representing Preston University.