Calling Leeds’ Next Great Designer
Applications Now Open for the Culture Rising Student Runway Award.
Every year, Leeds becomes a little brighter, louder, and more expressive as Culture Fashion Show UK takes shape — but this year, we’re opening the doors even wider. For the first time, we’re inviting fashion, textiles, and design students across Leeds and the wider Yorkshire region to step into the spotlight through the Culture Rising Student Runway Award. It’s an opportunity created to celebrate the next generation of designers who are exploring culture, identity, and storytelling through their work.
Behind the scenes, our team has been building something that feels very “Leeds” at its core: creative, community‑driven, and full of heart. We’ve spent the last few months shaping a development‑led pathway that gives students more than just a runway moment. The selected designer will receive creative support, a professional studio content day, and a place on the CFSUK26 runway — an experience designed to nurture confidence as much as craft. It’s been exciting watching this come together, knowing how much talent is already emerging from our local universities and colleges.
What makes this award special is the freedom it gives students to express themselves. We’re not looking for polished collections or finished garments. Sketches, concepts, work‑in‑progress pieces — it all counts. We want to see how young designers interpret culture in their own way, whether that’s through heritage, rhythm, memory, or the future they imagine for or the future they imagine for themselves.
Leeds has always been a city that champions creativity, and this award is our way of amplifying the voices that are shaping what comes next.
Applications are open until Friday 28 th February, and we’d love for students across Leeds to get involved. You can apply here.
We’ve also created a digital asset hub with visuals and information for anyone who’d like to share the opportunity:
Digital Asset Hub
The winning designer will go on to showcase their work live at Culture Fashion Show UK on Saturday 6 th June at Fearns Leeds Dock, — a night that celebrates creativity, culture and the stories that shape us.
Tickets for CFSUK26 will be released soon, and we’d love to see the city come out to support its emerging talent.
Follow @Culturefashionshowuk to stay tuned!
If you’ve ever wanted to put your creativity out into the world, start here.
For more information, please contact 2Chic Events Management, founders of Culture Fashion Show UK, via email at enquiries@2chiceventmanagement.co.uk.