Bottega Veneta Bankrolls BA Scholarship at Central Saint Martins
LONDON — Bottega Veneta is opening its luxury leather purse and setting up a one-year scholarship for three Central Saint Martins BA Fashion students.
Bottega Veneta is covering final-year tuition fees for two local students and one international one. Each student will also be given 5,000 pounds to fund any “material needs,” such as supplies or living expenses.
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The college said the package will help pupils “bring their collections to life as they prepare to join the influential network of Central Saint Martins designers across the global fashion industry.”
Bottega’s creative director Daniel Lee is a Central Saint Martins graduate. Earlier this month, the brand inexplicably wiped its account from Instagram. With this latest CSM partnership, it appears that Bottega is increasingly looking to engage with consumers, and a new generation of designers, in ways that have nothing to do with social media.
The creation of the one-year scholarship follows Lee’s and Bottega’s work with the BA Fashion team at CSM on the digital presentation that replaced its traditional catwalk show this summer.
“The Bottega Veneta scholarships represent life-changing opportunities for highly talented BA Fashion students to explore their potential as designers, free from the pressures of financial anxiety,” said Sarah Gresty, BA Fashion course leader at Central Saint Martins.
“We are proud of our association with Daniel Lee, who studied on the BA Fashion course, and thank Bottega Veneta for sharing our vision to support and nurture the very best in creative fashion talent.”
The three students who have been selected are Amon Kale, Laura Barnes and Lynn Yaung.
Kale, who is studying women’s wear, said the award is an “acknowledgement and encouragement of the tremendous work that has gone into my final collection, and the determination I have to create my vision for sustainable fashion.”
Barnes, another women’s wear student, said the scholarship means she can “push all the avenues I’ve started to explore in my final collection,” and is the best way to fully finish her experience at CSM.
Knitwear student Yaung said the money will allow him to experiment with “hybridizing traditional Burmese weaving techniques with innovative new practices” to produce something new.
“I am fusing the traditional handmaking skills I acquired in Parisian ateliers with my Burmese heritage, and modern materials to create a collection that focuses on the concept of growth, renewal and the continuous flow of energy in biological forms,” Yaung said.
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