On July 17, a youth designer will be chosen from a pool of seven students, who have endured weeks of competing while managing to avoid elimination, when the final stage of Cole Facts 2 is taken to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The winner will be this county’s representative at the Caribbean Youth Designers Competition slated to be held during next month’s Carifesta X.

Show time is 7 pm and tickets cost $1,000 for adults and $500 for children.
Those in attendance will be treated to a catwalk show displaying a collection of pieces designed by the seven finalists and it is from here that the winner will be chosen. The finalists will be showing off a total of eight pieces each, four of which were designed during the various stages of the competition.

The students who have made it to the finals are from St Roses, St Joseph, Central High, Brickdam Secondary, St Stanislaus and Bishops.

This is the second year that this competition, which is the brainchild of local fashion designer Michelle Cole-Rose and Natasha Martindale, the owner of Gysphere.com is being held.

Just before the competition began in May, Michelle told The Scene, that the competition is much bigger now as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport have come on board.

Out of the applications which came from some 20 schools, ten were chosen and things got under way on May 16. But some were eliminated during the various stages of the contest.

The student designers’ competition was first held in 2006. In 2007 Michelle took a career break after becoming pregnant with her first child, Sapphire.

The competition targeted high school students between the ages of 12 and 19 across the country, students in their last year of high school who will graduate or get a diploma or certificate in 2008 and young talents, who although not in possession of a diploma or certificate, might have the creative flair for and experience in designing.