Calling Handbag Designers: Enter the Second Annual Independent Handbag Designer Awards (IDHA) Contest
From now until April 18, 2008, sign up at HandbagDesigner101.com to compete for one of six Awards for Handbag Design Excellence. At stake are a variety of coveted prizes: the opportunity to have your handbag go on a marketing press tour and garner international recognition, placement on Bag Borrow or Steal, a display and trunk show at Henri Bendel, and a booth at the influential WWD/MAGIC Accessories show in Las Vegas.
Finalists will be invited to present their bags at a high profile New York event on June 18, 2008 in NYC at the New York Historical Society attended by over 500 members of the fashion industry, including press and retailers. The legendary Lieber brand will be celebrating its 45th anniversary and will be honored with the IHDA Iconoclast Award for helping revolutionize the landscape of accessories design.
To participate in the open IDHA call, upload a jpeg of your genius bag creation in one or more of the following categories:
Best Handbag in Overall Style & Design
Best Handmade Handbag
Most Socially Responsible Handbag
Best Green Handbag
Best Student Made Handbag
Audience-Selected Handbag
Some of the important deets to know:
Requirements: All bags entered must be under the designer's own label. For the Best Student-Made Handbag, the designer must currently be in High School or University. Best Handmade Handbag must be made by the designer by machine or by hand, while Most Socially Responsible Handbag must donate a portion of the proceeds to the country of manufacturing, helping to improve local quality of life. The Best Green Handbag must be crafted from sustainable, recycled or organic materials and components, using nontoxic dyes, with a recyclable end product. Voters from Handbag Designer 101, and Bag Borrow or Steal will determine the Audience-Selected winner, while the Best Overall Style & Design will win based on the best executed style and design.
Selection of Finalists: In late April, the staff of Handbag Designer 101 will review all submissions at a Prescreening Event, and choose five finalists in each category who will be invited to participate in the IHDA event on June 18, 2008. To compete, finalists must provide the handbag shown in the photo submitted so it can be displayed the evening of the event. Also, finalists or their reps are responsible for getting themselves to the event.
Selection of Winners: A panel of respected and influential handbag design experts, editors, stylists, buyers and professors will judge the finalists' designs, select a winner from each category who will receive the Best Handbag in each category.
Prizes: The five finalists in each category will have the opportunity to offer their bags through Bag, Borrow Or Steal, the leading online retailer that allows women to borrow designer handbags and jewelry. They will also have the chance to have their bags featured in a window display at Henri Bendel, and to participate in a trunk show to promote and sell their lines at the store. The lucky winner of the Best Student-Made Handbag will receive an apprenticeship with the Henri Bendel accessory design team, while the winner of Best Overall Handbag in Style and Design walks away with a free 10x10 booth at the WWD/MAGIC Accessories Show in Las Vegas this August (worth $6,000), where 120,000 fashion influentials will be in attendance.
Enter - now! - at HandbagDesigner101.com.
- Lesley Scott
(photo via fashion.arts.ac.uk; illustration - handbags.com
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