Lily Rice

Two students will travel to Italy this year to see their jacket designs manufactured after they won a Europe-wide competition.

University College Falmouth students Lily Rice and Owen Bennett beat off competition from 250 other entrants to be selected among four winners of the Gore-tex Experience Tour contest to ‘build your own jacket with Mammut’.

Performance sportswear design graduate Lily and second-year student Owen have already been flown to Switzerland to visit the Mammut headquarters to design their jackets. Once the clothing has been made, they will head outdoors to test the garments.

The competition was run as part of a Facebook social media campaign. Applicants were judged on design proposals to use Gore-tex fabric to create a jacket that would reflect their own personal lifestyle needs. They also had to demonstrate a sound knowledge of the design process and the craftsmanship needed to realise their design.

Owen said: “I am very pleased to be selected to go the Experience Tour as it will give me a fantastic opportunity to put my design ideas into practice and to work alongside Gore-tex and Mammut.

Owen Bennett's design was influenced by his love of surfing

“I will get the chance to work with one of the best fabrics on the market as well as working with a top outdoor marque. The Swiss have a performance sportswear design graduate in their design team and it will be good to meet up so I can get feedback on how commercial my designs are. ”

Performance sportswear design course leader Jane Gottelier added: “Gore has changed its practice to allow a fourth winner, as the standard and volume of entries was so high.

“It demonstrates our unique degree course is both in tune with the industry’s leading voices, and also delivering at the highest standard.”