The Emirates campus of Esmod, the oldest French fashion university, recently announced that three of its students won top awards in the “Express Your Style” Fashion design competition sponsored by Mercedes- Benz Middle East. Maimoona Hussein, Azade Zandi,  and Bodoor Abdulqader won the three top awards for Esmod Dubai. The winning designs emphasized the increasing use of traditional Arabic elements with modern concepts.

The competition, which ran from March 25th 2010 to May 15th 2010 featured clothing that could be worn at the beach, during the holidays, or as casual evening wear. The only criteria was that all the designs needed to be inspired by the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet model.

Maimoona Hussein won first place for her design of a dress incorporating elements from the Mercedes Benz E-Class Cabriolet model. She was awarded two VIP tickets to the Mercedes-Benz fashion week event in Berlin, a personal meeting with a leading German fashion designer, a one-month internship at Harpers Bazaar Arabia and two VIP tickets to Esmod’s 2010 graduation ceremonies.

All three students received a Mercedes test drive for one weekend, a special-edition Mercedes Benz silk scarf from the Mercedes Benz lifestyle collection and also a copy of the Mercedes Benz Berlin fashion week backstage book.

Esmod is the oldest fashion institute in Dubai and has around 200 students from over 50 nationalities. Participation in such an event encourages the interchange between fashion students of different cultures and backgrounds as well as the growing development of Arabic fashion in an international and modern context.