BFC and Adidas Launch London 2012 Design Award Collection

For the first time, the British Fashion Council (BFC) has joined forces with sportswear brand Adidas to search for new design talent for launching the Adidas "London 2012 Design award collection."

The Adidas London 2012 sportswear design award in association with the BFC Colleges Council has asked course tutors from many of the UK's leading design colleges to take part in this exciting design opportunity.

The brief was to design an inspirational and innovative collection for style conscious urban 16 - 28-year-olds, who represent London during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Specific guidelines from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) were to use their design identity and colour palette.

The BFC reported that on 28 January, 2011, a panel of industry judges chose the winning designs by Alexandra Gardner from Nottingham Trent University for her exceptional design ability and creative vision. Judges included representatives from Adidas and the BFC as well as British Olympic athlete, Philips Idowu.

Alexandra was inspired by the work of artist Anish Kapoor who used large-scale installations to reinvent old spaces. This concept was implemented by taking the heritage of the Adidas brand and reinventing it with a fresh fashion approach.

"I chose to use the London 2012 inspired grid pattern conceptually as a representation of people coming together," Alexandra said in a statement.

The one-off collection reportedly consists of women's lifestyle and sports apparel; performance pieces include running tights and cross-back tanks all with a striking graphic representation of the London 2012 grid design.

Lifestyle pieces include structured hoodies and the must have festival fashion red poncho. The signature Adidas three stripes are positioned so that they wrap around the garments which results in a fresh take on the classic branding.

The entire collection contains a blend of performance wear with trendy designs and style patterns.

The collection is available nationwide from Adidas stores and retail partners from 18 May 2012.