News @ FDDI

Adding another feather in FDDI’s cap, its student of Hyderabad campus & her team selected as winners of The‘Prospect100 X Kering France- Global Design Competition 2021’


Ms. Sameeksha Ambolikar, a student of Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI), Hyderabad campus along with her team participated and won the Prospect100 X Kering France-Global Design Competition 2021.

Ms. Sameeksha Ambolikar, a design elective student, B.DES (FDP 18’) from FDDI School of Footwear Design & Production (FSFDP) showcased her creativity & talent and won the first place. The contest was launched and organized by Prospect 100 in partnership with the global luxury group, Kering - France.

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Kering manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods, Jewelry and Watches like Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, UlysseNardin, Girard-Perregaux, as well as Kering Eyewear.

Prospect100 is an organization which creates competitions that awards prestigious opportunities to young people from anywhere around in different filed like music, innovation, design and film. Their aim is to democratize access to these industries and allow young people to get their work in front of the most influential people in their respective fields. The global design competition submission date was from 30th August 2021 to 24th September 2021.

Leveraging the benefit of digital communication, Ms. Sameeksha submitted the 3D render model of creative expressions, i.e. Running footwear design- ‘RAG 4 RUN’. Her theme ‘RAG 4 RUN’ means running footwear from discarded materials.

The competition was about the fulfilment of the prompt “Make you wardrobe more sustainable” in which participants were needed to redesign an item of clothing from their closet to make it more sustainable.

Ms. Sameeksha participated individually after which she got team-up with other 4 Indian girls by prospect100 namely Ms. Samruddhi Mane - student from IIT Roorkee, Ms. Aadyachachra - student from Royal College of Arts London and Ms. Naazneen Sandhu from Thapar Institute of Science and Technology, Patiala.

She and her team designed a running shoe from discarded materials like masks and undergarments demonstrating innovation, sustainability and empowerment.

After being judged by a panel of 7 industrial leaders across the world on 20thSeptember 2021, her project first got shortlisted in top 25. These 25 teams were then headed to the public voting on Instagram for 48 hours. The 5 teams with the most votes by 22nd September 2021 @ 23:59 BST / 4:30IST were likely to move for the finals. The top 5 finalists were from five different countries from across the world, such as India, Mexican and so on.

Ms. Sameeksha and her team with maximum public votes made it to the top 5 for finals on 22nd September 2021. She also received an email invitation to attend final round, Jury with the team of international designers.

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In a cut throat competition in the final round, she and her team presented their project live to the head judge for the Prospect 100 X Kering Global Design Competition, Marie-Claire Daveu, the Chief Sustainability Officer for Kering.

Marie-Claire told the team that she was blown away by the depth and detail within their project with a strong technical focus too. She appreciated the team and declared them winner in the live itself on 24th September 2021 at 18:00 BST / 10:30IST.

As a winner she and her team will be receiving a free access to exclusive masterclass, ‘Shape Fashion’s Future’ programme led by Institute FRANÇAIS de la MODE and co-conceptualized by Kering France, mentorship and rewarded a cash prize of $4000.

Sharing her experience, Ms. Sameeksha Ambolikar says that standards of other projects were unbelievable which taught her a lot about the sustainable fashion world and it was a great experience for her to interact and demonstrate her ideas with such highly experienced industrial leaders.