In its effort to empower the next generation of fashion tech savvy designers, Gerber Technology, the world leader in integrated software and automated solutions for the apparel and industrial markets, has announced five finalists in the fashion design competition segment of their annual Ideation conference.

The five finalists of the competition, which began with 60 entries in February 2016, are Ashley Maurice, Lin Savadty, Maria Silvia Grisolia, Victoria Zito and Ye Hong. Natalia Gilca finds honourable mention.

“Gerber is passionate about providing the technology to make it easy for anyone in the world to design, produce and sell great products,” said Elizabeth King, VP, digital solutions community and ecosystem at Gerber Technology. “It is exciting to see how these students applied their fashion education to express themselves creatively through the use of fashion technology and we look forward to seeing them during the fashion show at Ideation.”

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Ideation2016 is the premier software conference dedicated to fashion and retail professionals who rely on Gerber’s end-to-end Digital Solutions to integrate software like YuniquePLM and the AccuMark family of products to seamlessly transfer data across the supply chain – driving smart machines and feeding back information, allowing companies to automate their entire process.

Streamlining the data and workflows provides insight, brings products to market faster, minimises costs and ensures quality for Gerber customers.  

“The finalists were chosen after careful consideration and deliberation by a panel of industry experts,” said King. “The designers and their creations will debut at Ideation2016 during a fashion show on September 30. Conference attendees will vote for the best overall garment to win the grand prize.”

The inspiration for the student designs embraces the Pantone Color of the Year 2016 alongside select vintage garments from The Darnell Collection. Influenced by this, the students displayed unique talent in transforming vintage clothing designs into contemporary wearables.

The vintage garments used as inspiration were carefully curated from The Darnell Collection, one of the largest private fashion collections of its type in existence today, containing over 8,000 pieces from 32 countries. Included in the collection are exquisite pieces from the likes of Versace, Meliet, Chanel, Armonia for Montenapoleone, Balenciaga, Pauline Trigere, Bernshaw, Mann Maid and many more icons.