Woolmark presents design award
Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales, the design duo behind Australian fashion label Romance Was Born, have won the 2009 L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Designer Award presented by Woolmark and supported by Vogue.
The label beat competition from 2009 finalists Ant!podium, Gary Bigeni, Ellery, Konstantina Mittas and Therese Rawsthorne to win the award.
The entirely Australian-made label impressed judges with its autumn-winter 2009 Yeti Magic collection featuring Australian Merino wool.
Brenda McGahan, CEO of Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), which owns the Woolmark brand, presented the award to Romance Was Born at a special event at Melbourne’s Docklands before a gathering of 350 guests including woolgrowers from Victoria and Tasmania, Victorian MPs Martin Pakula and Lynne Kosky, fashion designers Akira Isogawa and Yeojin Bae and Vogue’s Pippa Holt.
Ms McGahan said: “The Woolmark brand has a long history of supporting fashion creativity and emerging designer talent; Romance Was Born’s spectacular win continues the proud tradition of Australian wool and innovative fashion design.”
In addition to the industry title, Romance Was Born received a $10,000 cash prize plus an AWI-hosted trip to either the Pitti Filati fashion fair in Florence or the Premiere Vision trade event in Paris.
