AWCoMAD Student Wins Arts of Fashion Grand Prize

Milka Osoro (above, center), a third year graduate student at the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, won the Les Ecoles de la Chambre Syndicale, De la Couture Parisienee -- the grand prize -- at the Arts of Fashion Symposium and Competition. Osoro won a year’s tuition to study at Paris’s Chambre Syndicale de la Mode, the top couture design school run by the French government which includes all the top French design houses as members.  The award was presented at the Arts of Fashion finale fashion show, held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

Osoro was one of fifty students from more than 20 countries to submit garments in the annual competition. Each student prepared sketches for two garments that were judged by a panel of fashion experts and professors during the semifinals held in Los Angeles in May 2009. Osoro spent the last month working 12-14 hour days in Drexel’s fashion studios completing her designs. AWCoMAD fashion professors Renee Weiss-Chase and Lisa Hayes advised Osoro on her garments.

In 2005, AWCoMAD fashion student Megan Stein was the first American to win the Arts of Fashion's top honor. Student Jaeyoon Yeong won the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac Award and recently opened his own boutique, carrying his collection, in New York City.