George at Asda Launches Graduate Fashion Week Designer Collection

LONDON, November 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

George Gold Award Winner Rory Longdon's First Edgy Collection Hits George.com and Selected Asda Stores

Rory Longdon, winner of the prestigious George Gold Award at Graduate Fashion week in June 2011, sees the full fruit of his hard work as the launch of his first high street collection goes on sale at George at Asda.

Rory won the opportunity to create a capsule Christmas knitwear collection for George alongside a £20,000 cash prize, a 4 week paid placement at George and mentoring sessions from Brand Director Fiona Lambert.  Rory's designs have now come to life in an exclusive, limited, knitwear collection inspired by his winning catwalk designs.

"It's a great feeling to have launched a collection for such a large supermarket, but very surreal too. It's hard to believe people will be buying pieces with my name on them every day. It'll be a weird but amazing feeling to see someone wearing my designs on the street," he said.

With Rory's collection launch comes the announcement that George at Asda will be the title sponsor of Graduate Fashion Week 2012.  This will be the second year running the brand supports the event, and will be continuing its commitment to provide work experience placements for new graduates who impress at the event. 

George at Asda, Brand Director, Fiona Lambert commented: "It has been fantastic to work with Rory and see his designs come to life in front of our very eyes.  Rory's collection presents the opportunity to reach out to an edgier and high-fashion led consumer as well as offering something new and exciting to our loyal George shoppers. The range promises cutting edge designs with both the wearability and affordability factors which George and Rory are extremely proud of.  George strives to nurture and develop young talent across the fashion industry and so we are delighted to launch the beginning of a very promising design career for Rory Longdon as well as to announce our support for the second year by remaining the title sponsor of Graduate Fashion Week 2012."

Rory, 23 from West Hallam, has a wealth of background experience as a Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles graduate from Nottingham Trent University, and is now enjoying working at Italian fashion house Max Mara before he embarks on an MA next year.  It is clear his degree and GFW winning collection has heavily influenced his George range with pieces including chunky knit jumpers and dresses with matrix silver embellishment.  Knitwear is clearly Rory's signature as he explains, "I enjoy being able to work on the complete process with knitwear. From choosing the yarn, creating the fabrics, to constructing the garment. The possibilities with knitwear are endless."

His designs have encapsulated a catwalk inspired feel within the high street, boasting the benefit of being a wearable fashion range at an affordable price which Rory welcomed for his first launch, "It wasn't difficult to encapsulate my signature look at an affordable price as there were a lot of good options to choose from whilst developing the collection for George.  I've managed to create something very close to my original runway collection for a fraction of the price."

Rory's exclusive, limited collection will be available in selected Asda stores and online at George.com from November 21st and will retail from £12-£20. Free collection from any Asda store when ordering online.