Last weekend marked the Glitz Africa fashion weekend and the grand finale of the Jump on Glitz emerging fashion designer competition.

The competition was run by Jump by Busy in partnership with Glitz Africa to discover, nurture and jumpstart the fashion careers of talented fashion designers.

Jump is a youth empowerment initiative launched by Busy to support the Ghanaian youth by providing them with information in education, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and inspiration & self-improvement.

From over 100 entries, rounds of design presentations, master class and internship sessions and a runway show, Melissa Arthur emerged the winner, with Nana Kweku Agyenim-Boateng as the 1^st runner-up and Belinda Ofori as the 2^nd runner-up.  

Melissa who was excited at the opportunity to have her designs exhibited on the Glitz Fashion runway went home with a Busy 4G router wit a free 50GB worth of data for three months. 

She also got a cash prize of ¢5,000 and an opportunity to showcase her collection at the 2018 Glitz Africa Fashion week.

The first runner-up Mr. Nana Kweku Agyenim-Boateng, who is a student at the Joyce Ababio College of Creative Design went home with Busy products and 6 months’ worth of 4G data.

The second runner-up Miss Belinda Ofori, who is the creative director for Turquoise Couture went home with Busy products and 4 months’ worth of data.

The Jump on Glitz Competition attracted entries from aspiring fashion designers all over the country. The entries were assessed and then shortlisted to 12 finalists.

The finalists were taken through masterclass sessions where they had the opportunity to interact and learn from resource persons from Vlisco, prominent fashion designers such as Duaba Serwaa and Kwasi Kyei Darkwah, also known as KKD.

The masterclass featured lessons on Fashion and Media, Brand Management and Marketing.

The shortlisted applicants were subsequently tasked to draw sketches of the designs that they intended to present on the runway. They were also given a plain tee- shirt each and tasked to create a new design from the tee-shirt.

At the end of this exercise, five applicants were shortlisted to proceed to the next stage of the competition which included internship opportunities with Nallem Clothing and Poqua Poqu Clothing.

Each participant underwent four training sessions spanning a period of four days. Participants were further tasked to present finished designs from the sketches that they earlier presented after which 3 applicants were chosen out of the lot.

Speaking on the Jump on Glitz initiative, CEO of Busy Internet Praveen Sadalage explained Busy’s new positioning to focus on creating platforms to empower the youth. 

According to him, the drive is borne out of Busy’s strong believe that Ghana’s prosperous future is hinged on our ability to empower every Ghanaian child to nurture their skills and talents.

Regarding the success of the competition, he said, "we are very excited about the Jump on Glitz competition and the exposure it has given to these young fashion designers."

"From the output of the finalists, we are happy to say we have contributed significantly to jumpstarting the fashion careers of these amazing talents," he added.