Five New York City colleges will take part in the competition — FIT, LIM College, Parsons The New School for Design, Pratt Institute, and School of Visual Arts — with each sending two teams of five students (one focused on women’s wear, the other on menswear). Each team will conceptualize, style, and shoot a compelling editorial image in line with the Amazon Fashion brand. The cross-functional teams are comprised of students with experience in graphic design, fashion photography, styling, editing, and art direction.
The FIT students on the menswear team are Ivan Garzon, of Jamaica, NY, a Photography student and the team’s photographer; Kevin Kiriluk, of Setauket, NY, an Advertising and Marketing Communications student and the team’s graphic designer; Olivia LaTronica, of Binghamton, NY, a Fabric Styling student and one of the team’s fabric stylists; Courtnie Martindale, of Trinidad, West Indies, a Fabric Styling student and the team’s other fabric stylist; and Grace Taylor, of Holbrook, NY, an Advertising and Marketing Communications student and the team’s art director.
The FIT students on the women’s wear team are Brittany Chapov, of Gainsville, FL, a Fabric Styling student and one of the team’s fabric stylists; Brenda De Baets, of Aalter, Belgium, a Fabric Styling student and the team’s other fabric stylist; Ashleigh O’Dea, of Manorville, NY, an Advertising and Marketing Communications student and the team’s art director; Michelle Flaks, of Oceanside, NY, a Communications Design student and the team’s graphic designer; and Erin Yamagata, of La Habra, CA, a Photography student and the team’s photographer. All the students are scheduled to graduate in 2015.
There will be two winning teams, one for the menswear campaign and one for the women’s wear campaign. The winning teams’ colleges will receive $15,000, while the individual members of the winning teams will each receive $5,000. The winning teams’ images will be featured on Amazon.com/StudioSessions. The members of second place teams will each receive $2,000. A new category this year is the Fan Favorite Team. The members of the Fan Favorite teams will each receive a $1,000 Amazon gift card.
Five fashion industry leaders will serve as mentors to the teams as they develop their editorial campaigns throughout the day. The mentors are Kate Dimmock, fashion director, People Stylewatch; Lori Goldstein, fashion stylist; Amy Odell, editor, Cosmopolitian.com; Ivan Shaw, photography director, Vogue; and Eric Wilson, fashion news director, InStyle.
A panel of Amazon executives will select the winners based on criteria that will include creativity, wardrobe styling, layout and composition, photography, art direction and set design, and editing, as well as consistency with Amazon Fashion’s branding and voice. The judges are Cathy Beaudoin, president, Amazon Fashion; Dennis Leggett, creative director, Amazon Fashion; Gina Tovar, fashion director, Amazon Fashion; Muge Erdirik Dogan, director, Amazon Beauty; and Darcy Penick, chief merchant, Shopbop.
Keep an eye on the latest developments in the contest at https://twitter.com/FIT, http://instagram.com/fitnyc, and https://www.facebook.com/FashionInstituteofTechnology.