John Hillifer's winning jacket

The competition was tough enough, with 65 third-year Ryerson School of Fashion students competing to have their leather jacket be chosen as the winner in Danier’s Design Challenge. The fact that none of the top three contestants had ever worked with leather before made their achievement especially impressive.

Danier and Ryerson dreamed up a three-stage competition that allowed students to test their sewing skills by creating a women’s leather jacket. The challenge began with participants preparing a two-minute video presenting a sketch of their garment. The videos were then posted online and the public got to vote on who made it to the next rounds–25 students got to create a muslin (dummy garment) and only 15 got to create their final leather piece.

Along with the public, a panel of judges, which included Jeanne Beker, Ryerson Fashion chair Robert Ott, stylist George Antonopoulos and Globe & Mail style writer Tiyana Grulovic, chose the winning design. Read the rest of this entry »