By VCUarts staff
Three VCUarts Fashion Design and Merchandising students who won the coveted 2022 Fashion Scholarship Fund’s (FSF) Case Study Competition were recently honored at the annual FSF awards gala held at The Glasshouse in New York City on April 11. The gala is a prestigious event that allows the opportunity for award recipients to meet and connect with industry executives and leaders.
The 2022 VCUarts award winners are fashion + design major Alexander Britto (junior) and merchandising majors Sharon (Viva) Chapman (senior) and Sadie Kinzer (sophomore).
This year’s event, which Vogue covered, was hosted by Broadway star Renée Elise Goldsberry and included high-profile event attendees such as Vogue’s Anna Wintour and Shannon Abloh, wife of the late Virgil Abloh. In addition, Supreme’s Tremaine Emory, Neiman Marcus’s CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck, Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson, and Bergdorf Goodman’s senior vice president Linda Fargo were at the event to celebrate these up and coming designers.
“The Fashion Scholarship Fund continues to raise the bar for seeking out and rewarding young talent in the fashion industry,” said Deidra Arrington, associate professor at VCUarts and chair of The Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising. “They truly value and honor our students’ spirit, creativity and ingenuity. It is an honor and privilege to belong to this prestigious organization.”
The Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF), founded in 1937, is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and investing in fashion students and promising young talent in the fashion industry.
The annual FSF Case Study Scholarship is a highly competitive scholarship program. It receives applications from approximately 65 member schools, including Cornell, Parsons School of Design, Harvard and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Each year, the scholarship application requires participants to respond to a topic that focuses on the fashion industry’s current issues.
Competition winners receive $7,500 to $20,000 in scholarship money and access to internship and job opportunities through FSF partner companies. Award recipients will also be connected to corporate recruiters at FSF’s Talent Acquisition events.
Lead Image: (From left to right) Alex Britto, Design; Deidra Arrington, Chair of the Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising; Viva Chapman, Merchandising and Sadie Kinzer, Merchandising. Photo from Deidra Arrington.