THREE Hampshire students have been shortlisted for a national competition that celebrates diversity in fashion.

University of Portsmouth second year fashion and textile design students Tsvetelina Bravova, Mona Nejad Ghasemi and Hannah Burbury have been recognised by All Walks Beyond the Catwalk, an initiative that campaigns for diversity in the fashion industry.

The competition ‘DIVERSITY NOW!’ is about empowering the next generation of creatives to build a fashion future that promotes a broader range of body and beauty ideals to truly celebrate individuality.

The student designers were shortlisted for their Paleti clothing range which aims to highlight the discrimination against black women in the fashion industry.

Tsvetelina said: “The inspiration for our clothing range came from our friend Hannah who is a fashion model and also a student at the university. We wanted to design a range that would really complement her beautiful skin tone.

“Our range attempts to highlight how stunning black women can look. Not many designers consider using them on the catwalks where they are replaced and discriminated against. It’s not uncommon to only see white models on the runway.

“Our colour palette is bright and bold because we want women to wear our clothes to show off the fun side of their personalities and ooze self-confidence. The worldwide broad spectrum of beautiful skin tones is the true inspiration behind our brand.”

The competition is organised in association with i-D magazine and winners will be announced in the next issue, which will be published online later this month.

Senior Lecturer Sue Noble said: “This competition has such an important and relevant message we have placed it at the heart of our second year curriculum; the fashion and media industries need to expand their narrow definition of beauty to be more representative of the true beauty in the world. All Walks Beyond The Catwalk is a great organisation to work with and we are delighted with our students’ success."