Articles

HCC Fashion Design students garner honors at Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award competition

By Donald Sparks, HCC Central Communications Director

Dec 5, 2025


Photo 1: Pictured from left to right: HCC Fashion Design Students with their trophies. Darrion Nguyen earned Best Creativity; Kelyn Mauz earned overall Second Prize; and Matthew Simbajon earned the High Potential Prize at the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award (PCYDA) competition, held Nov. 19-20, in Dallas.Pictured from left to right: HCC Fashion Design Students with their trophies. Darrion Nguyen earned Best Creativity; Kelyn Mauz earned overall Second Prize; and Matthew Simbajon earned the High Potential Prize at the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award (PCYDA) competition, held Nov. 19-20, in Dallas.

Upon arriving in Dallas to compete in the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award (PCYDA) competition, Houston City College (HCC) Fashion Design student Matthew Simbajon was a nervous wreck.

“My palms were sweating the entire time, and I couldn't get my heartbeat to rest, and it was beating through the roof,” said Simbajon, 21, who came to the United States from the Philippines and now lives in Pearland.

Eventually he settled down, got into the flow of the competition and was able to sketch design pieces that earned him sixth place overall from a field of more than 30 designers from California, New York and Texas.

The PCYDA is a global competition for fashion design students encouraging the next generation of designers to shape the future of fashion. Organized by the Pierre Cardin House since 2022, the competition seeks to discover emerging talents. The PCYDA took place from Nov. 14-20 in three different cities: New York, San Francisco and Dallas. Simbajon was one of three HCC students who earned honors at the competition, which was held Nov. 19 and Nov. 20 in Dallas, placing three of the top 10 finishers.

Winners were:

  • Darrion Nguyen - Best Creativity Prize
  • Kelyn Mauz - 2nd Prize – Grand Prix Pierre Cardin
  • Matthew Simbajon - High Potential Prize


Maison Cardin selects winners through a collective workshop attended by the design studio and offers them the opportunity to complete an internship to learn the codes of the Cardin style.

For Mauz, 25, who describes herself as a seamstress, the competition challenged her to be more creative as the designers had to create conceptual sketches.

“Drawing is not necessarily my strong suit, so I was open-minded and just wanted to absorb as much as I could and learn from some credible industry professionals,” she said. “I believe that I was technically sound and wanted to hear what they thought about my existing body of work.”

Taking part in his fourth fashion design competition, Nguyen, 31, entered the PCYDA with great confidence and desired to enhance his skills, aesthetic and creativity. Although he placed first in two other competitions, the Pierre Cardin was a much larger event.

“You have to be a bit delusional, and you must think you're the best, so I came into this, thinking, ‘I'm going to win first place,’” he said. “But once, once you get there and you meet the other competitors and contestants, you realize, oh my, gosh, these people are good or even better than you.”

All the students credited their HCC Fashion Design instructors for their success and validates their ability to compete with fashion students from much larger institutions.

“‎Before attending, I researched HCC’s fashion program and read several online articles highlighting its impressive competitions and accomplished alumni,” Nguyen shared. “Since I was already living in Houston, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to pursue a strong fashion design education close to home.”

Mauz couldn’t hold back her emotions describing her love for the program.

“The program here at HCC is world class,” she explained. “I don't know about other countries or students in other countries, but from the group of students that I saw in Dallas and from the United States, the program that we have here is really, really stellar.”

Fashion Design program instructors Vi Hua and Alexander Chapman expected the students to stand out against their competitors. The students selected to compete had the right aesthetics and artistry in their portfolio to meet the intent of the Pierre Cardin brand style.

“We’re a community college, but we have the resources that can rival any other fashion design institution,” Chapman boldly proclaimed. “It speaks volumes because Texas, outside of Houston, has some strong fashion programs that we compete against. So, this was an affirmation for our students to earn their honors.”

Hua mentioned it’s important for her and the other instructors to share their knowledge with the next generation of fashion designers.

“It helps that nearly every single professor in this program comes from the industry and worked in different aspects of the field,” Hua said. “We provide our students the basics and the rest is up to them. We have resources that many colleges would be very jealous of, but we provide the basics and it's up to our students to use their aesthetics, creativity and talents to run with it.”

As for Simbajon, his experience at the PCYDA reassured his confidence to excel in the fashion industry.

“I feel a lot more confident in my abilities and now more focused in my design potential,” he said. “This prize has me feeling awesome.”

To learn more about the HCC Fashion Design program, visit hccs.edu/fashiondesign.

One of HCC Fashion Design Student Kelyn Mauz’s sketches that earned her overall Second Prize at the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award (PCYDA) competition, held Nov. 19-20, in Dallas.One of HCC Fashion Design Student Kelyn Mauz’s sketches that earned her overall Second Prize at the Pierre Cardin Young Designers Award (PCYDA) competition, held Nov. 19-20, in Dallas.