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Monday, 12 March 2007 | Levent OZLER
Emerging Designers Get Personal in Franciscan Signature Style Competition
Franciscan, a leading Napa Valley winery for more than three decades, invites emerging designers to "tie" their own personal style to the hand-crafted elegance of Franciscan wines by submitting an original necktie design to the inaugural Franciscan Signature Style Competition.
Design luminary Thom Browne, the Council of Fashion Designers of America's 2006 Menswear Designer of the Year, heads a panel of fashion, editorial, and design leaders who will select the one-of-a-kind men's necktie that best embodies the signature qualities of Franciscan's distinctive Napa Valley wines-vibrant and rich, with hand-crafted elegance.
For Thom Browne, whose collections are based on classically-inspired handmade clothing, "A necktie is an essential part of a man's wardrobe that completes the look. Fashion is about the individual and for the wearer to enjoy."
Franciscan takes a similar approach in the crafting of its wines, believing great wine should be the perfect blend of location, environment, and human personality expressed through time-honored traditional techniques such as small-lot winemaking.
"There's a lot about the creativity and execution of fashion design that is mirrored in winemaking," says Franciscan Director of Winemaking, Janet Myers. "A fine wine should be as carefully crafted as a hand-tailored suit-there are hundreds of small decisions I make in both the vineyard and the winery that add up to a perfectly structured, elegant wine."
The Franciscan Signature Style Competition will accept entries through March 30, 2007. Three competition finalists will be selected to receive a trip to New York City to attend an event in their honor on May 15, 2007, where their completed ties will be judged in person and a Grand Prize winner will be announced. The Grand Prize Winner of the Franciscan Signature Style Competition will have their winning design displayed at http://www.franciscanstyle.com through summer 2007 and will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a three-day trip for the winner and a guest to visit Franciscan in Napa Valley, California.
In addition to the panel-selected Grand Prize winner, the general public will have the opportunity to select a "Personal Pick" from the field of finalists. The "Personal Pick" Winner will receive a certificate at the Franciscan Signature Style Competition award event in New York. One dollar from every "click" generated by the "Personal Pick" selection will be donated to DIFFA/Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, up to a total of $3,000.
Franciscan Signature Style Competition Rules-Open 2/25/07 through 3/30/07 only to legal residents of the U.S. excluding California, 21 years of age or older at time of entry who have earned a design degree from an accredited design school or a design degree from an accredited educational institution, no earlier than December 31, 1996. Void in CA, Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary.
For complete rules, visit http://www.franciscanstyle.com
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