Two WashU Students Win 2024 Fashion Scholarship Fund

Two students in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Maxine Roeder, BFA ’24/AB ’25, and Julia Yuan, BFA ’25, have won the Fashion Scholarship Fund’s case study competition. The nonprofit, which focuses on fashion-oriented education and workforce development across the United States, awarded 130 scholarships from an applicant pool of 1200.

This year’s competition prompt asked students to submit a case study describing how a current fashion company can improve its practices in environment, sustainability, and governance. Roeder’s submission to the fashion design and product development category was an eco-friendly adaptive resort collection utilizing sustainable design principles for the Australian brand Zimmerman. Yuan submitted to the strategy category with a proposal for a partnership between Adidas and French biochemical company Carbios, together using enzymatic technology to recycle polyester from used textiles.

As part of the award, each student received $7,500.

WashU students have been recognized by the Fashion Scholarship Fund regularly since its inception. Last year, Connor Seger and Olivia Baba, both BFA ’23, were recipients of the Fund’s awards, with Baba being one of the competition’s four finalists.