LIM College Names Accessories Council Scholarship Winners

The winners included teams and individuals from the school’s fashion and merchandising program.

LIM College has named the winners of the 2019 Accessories Council Competition, which was held at the school, and included three scholarships awarded to students in the fashion merchandising program. Applicants were judged on the “proposed concept, design and launch” of an accessory product.

LIM College said in a statement that during the fall semester, groups of students in the Sustainability and the Future of Fashion and Product Development and Merchandising classes “worked on new outstanding sustainable fashion ideas and forward-looking product concepts for fashion accessories for a specific brand.”

The college notes that the ideas were then presented to “one representative from the Accessories Council and one from the company for which the students were developing the products.”

For the Charles & Colvard and

Accessories Council Sustainability Scholarship, Juniors Samantha Ingles, Isabella Rios and Arianna Porcelli, who were from Professor Tara Maurice’s Sustainability and the Future of Fashion, won $2,000 for their “Street Style” collection, which was aimed at Millennial and Generation X shoppers “who are drawn to sustainable brands and want everyday pieces.”

LIM College said the winners worked with their class to create sustainable “products, stories and action plans for Moissanite,” which is a lab-grown gemstone made by Charles & Colvard.

Meanwhile, students from Professor Andrea Kennedy’s Sustainability and the Future of Fashion won the Saga Furs and Accessories Council Sustainability Scholarship for a “Saga Simple” product line. The winners were sophomores Madison Lucas, Megan McLellan and Kaylee Naedler. The award was also

$2,000. Their winning submission “focuses on smaller, more affordable genuine fur accessories for Saga Furs.”

For the Marchon and Xcel Brands and Accessories Council Next Generation Scholarship, individual students from Professor Christine Stragazzi’s product development and merchandising class competed against one another to create “new innovative accessory product development portfolios” for Marchon and Xcel brands. “The first-place $2,000 scholarship recipient was Senior Rosanna Garcia for her C. Wonder interchangeable earrings,” the college said. “Junior Jillian Backer received the second-place $1,000 scholarship for her C. Wonder ‘airings.’”

Karen Giberson, president of the Accessories Council, said, in regard to the quality of the submissions, the bar is raised with each passing year of the competition. “We were blown away by the creative and thoughtful presentations,” Giberson said. “Congratulations to all the students for a job well done.”

Elizabeth S. Marcuse, LIM College president, said the competition teaches students “about the serious business behind making fashion accessories a reality, while also providing scholarship funds.”

“Consistent with LIM College’s longstanding emphasis on ‘learning by doing,’ our students got the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of everything from product development and sustainability practices to marketing and social media,” Marcuse said.