Fashion graduate announced as Vanguard Education Fund winner

Fashion Design BA(Hons) graduate Finlay Vincent has been selected for a prestigious opportunity as part of designer fashion brand NET-A-PORTER's Vanguard Education Fund.

Supported by the British Fashion Council, the Vanguard Education Fund aims to identify and nurture the next generation of innovators from selected BFC-affiliated courses.  

Shortlisted candidates were invited to take part in a judging day earlier this year, with Falmouth’s Finlay Vincent one of four lucky winners selected to receive a £12,500 bursary fund and become paired with two of the fund’s influential mentors. The mentors include Cate Holstein (founder of Khaite), Conner Ives and Christopher John Rogers; renowned stylist Julia Sarr-Jamois; editorial and tech expert Eva Chen; business mogul, musician and actor Jessica Jung; and NET-A-PORTER’s content director Alice Casely-Hayford and market director Libby Page. 

In a bid to improve waste generated in the industry during the sample phase of the fashion cycle, selected young designers will also receive cutting-edge 3D garment-design training as part of the programme.

Finlay told us he is “honoured” to have been selected as one of the recipients of the award. His funding will now go towards design, fabrics and manufacturing for his luxury menswear label SYSTEMS as well as an MA in Fashion Menswear. 

Create with an open mind. Ask as many questions as you can. Be vulnerable. Look up more.

Finlay’s concept SYSTEMS explores modularity, digitally pattern cut on CLO3D and turning up-cycled dead-stock fabric into pieces that can be assembled, dissembled and reassembled as the wearer chooses.  

Describing the works, Finlay said: "[They] aren’t fashion objects, rather modular objects, made in construction sets.

"The wearer is the designer, deciding its function thus creating its aesthetic. Well-designed objects serve innate human desires. Objects that serve speak to the sacred and outlive human life.”