They are one of Britain’s best-loved high street brands and on-line stores – so Footwear Design students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) were naturally excited when All Saints gave them a brief to come up with some cutting-edge designs.
Those excitement levels then went through the roof for five of the students after they were selected to take their ideas down to All Saints HQ in London and deliver a presentation to the brand’s top talent scouts.
One of the five will then be chosen to complete a month’s work experience with All Saints – an opportunity that will be the envy of students across Britain.
All Saints reps praised the standard of the students’ submissions calling them “technically gifted” and even suggested some designs were so inventive they could influence an entire collection!
All Saints is just one of dozens of big name companies which have formed partnerships with DMU over the years to help students gain vital experience from industry leaders and ensure they are best prepared for entering the world of work.
The students chosen to make the trip to London were Doey Kim, Ella Luke, Jasper Thoma, Hyunjin Yoon and Hyeyeong Kim.
Second year Footwear Design student Ella said: “When I first heard we’d be getting a brief from All Saints I was obviously really excited. I like their clothes, I enjoy shopping there and there was something different about this to the other projects that we’ve done.
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“I can’t believe I’ve been selected to go to London. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been nervous all day because all the shoes are so good, so even though I didn’t expect to be selected I was hopeful of it.
“It’s great experience to say that I’ve had this opportunity and it’ll give us all a better understanding of what footwear design is like in the industry. It will also help to prepare us for jobs when we graduate.”
Angela Bernardi, Footwear Product Developer and Technician at All Saints, said: “The human resources department at All Saints started collaborating with DMU and felt that it was a good idea to get involved with the university.
“The students’ work is really impressive. They’ve followed the brief really well and produced some really strong designs.
“It’s also impressive to see how they’ve gone from an original concept and followed that all the way through to a final prototype and clearly they’re technically very skilled.
“Some of the shoes are filled with so many ideas that they could be dismantled and expanded to create an entire collection from the initial concept while staying within the brief.
“At All Saints we had a biker-style range of leather jackets which created the theme for this footwear design brief, they’ve taken inspiration from the jackets and taken concepts of that to expand them towards shoe design and you can really see elements and styles from our range in their work.”
Sonny Kearns, Human Resources Business Partner for All Saints, added: “Working with All Saints opens up the perception to the students of what it’s like to work with a design team and how all the departments which make up the identity of the brand work together.
“It’s also about us being able to work with the next generation of designers and being allowed to tap into that resource, and hopefully one day some of these very talented students may even be able to work with us.”
Michael King, Footwear Design Lecturer at DMU, said: “All of the Footwear Design students have said they’ve really loved the brief sent to them by All Saints and what a great opportunity this is to be super productive and produce designs with a premium brand.
“The All Saints people looked through all their shoes and then selected five that they thought had responded the best to the brief. It is a fantastic opportunity to work with a really top brand and then be able to add this to their CV is brilliant for the students.”
Posted on Thursday 26 February 2015