Japanese textile scholarship winners announced

Six Western Australian fashion students have been awarded prestigious scholarships which will allow them to travel to Japan in 2011 to work with Banshu textile manufacturers.

Culture and the Arts Minister John Day last night announced the inaugural WA-Hyogo Banshu Textile scholarship winners at the Hyogo Prefectural Government Cultural Centre in City Beach.

"This scholarship program was developed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sister State relationship between Western Australia and Hyogo Prefecture, and is an example of how the State Government is working to strengthen the ties between WA and Hyogo," Mr Day said.

"I thank Hyogo for their generosity in supporting this program, which involves the recipients travelling to Japan in March 2011, where they will have their designs transformed into quality fabrics by the world-class Hyogo Banshu textile industry.

"They will also showcase their work at the Nishiwaki Fashion Festival in Hyogo Prefecture, which will be a fantastic experience and further enable the development of links with the Japanese fashion industry."

The Minister congratulated the winners, all final-year students from Western Australian fashion training and education institutions.

Winners: 

·        Bea Cho - Central Institute of Technology

·        Seonaidh Murphy - Central Institute of Technology

·        Jennifer Nebel - Curtin University

·        Yan Zion - Curtin University

·        Mia Cramer - Curtin University

·        Jonte Pike - Polytechnic West.

The WA-Hyogo Banshu Textile program is co-ordinated by the departments of State Development; and Culture and the Arts and the Western Australian Government Kobe Office in Japan.

Banshu textile is made by a unique method where yarns are dyed in advance and patterns are woven with the dyed yarns.  It is suitable for a wide range of garments and is distributed worldwide to high-end fashion houses such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Giorgio Armani.