Faris Al-Shehri, 28, has a passion for fashion that enabled him to become the national finalist to represent Saudi Arabia in the International Young Fashion Entrepreneur (IYFE) in the UK.

The British Council launched the IYFE award in 2008 to champion and celebrate the importance of creative entrepreneurs working in the field of fashion.

“We had five strong candidates. We chose Al-Shehri because of his knowledge of the fashion industry and his passion,” said Marcus Gilbert, the director for the British Council in the western region of Saudi Arabia.

After holding interviews with the candidates and evaluating their skills, the jury decided on the final nomination. The evaluation focused on five key elements to assess the candidate’s skills and capability: leadership skills, entrepreneurial skills, ability to network locally and globally with the UK, market awareness, creativity and originality of ideas.

The evaluation consisted of two stages: short-listing done by the TV presenter and young fashion designer Heba Jamal and the interviews with the short-listed candidates carried out by Marcus Gilbert, Director British Council; Amani Fairak, Assistant Director Creativity Projects; Yahya Al-Bishri the international fashion designer and Ruben Little, Easter Province Manager Debenhams.

“We need people working in the fashion industry helping others with their marketing, branding and planning. We don’t need only fashion designers. We saw that in Faris Al-Shehri and we wish that he becomes a role model for others,” said Al-Bishri.

Al-Shehri told Arab News that there is so much to be done in the fashion industry.

“I’m very proud and thankful that the British Council is giving me this opportunity. There’s a huge demand for retail business in the fashion industry. Where there’s a will, there’s always a way. I believe there’s so much to be done,” said Al-Shehri.

In January 2009, Al-Shehri will visit the UK along with the nine IYFE finalists from Brazil, India. Indonesia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Thailand, Tunisia and Vietnam.

Together they will visit London and Nottingham and take part in valuable networking with leading UK fashion industry figures and their IYFE peers.

The tour is to help them discover how the UK sector works and what drives the market and find out how to do business in the UK and, importantly, with one another.

Al-Shehri will also compete with the IYFE finalists over the British Council design award worth £7,500, which will be spent on a joint project with the British