Fifty women took top honours in the Rural Women Designer Awards in Suva on Friday night.

Three categories of design included Polynesian culture ,Bollywood design and the iTauekei design.

Participant Maca Finau is competing for the second time the rural designer awards – motivates her to improve her skills.

“The most important thing is to bring the young womens to be part of this show so that they can know where to stand in the future.”

Finau travelled to Suva from Taveuni to show-off her designs. She scooped the award in the Chamba competition in April.

This year’s awards were sponsored by LICI which is urging women to enter the professional arena in the fashion industry and support their families.

“We encouraged women in rural areas to come out with different designs and different product which would help them to enhance their capacity to look at different markets and go beyond their own immediate neighborhood to sell.”

These contestants are part of womens’ groups that were given sewing machines by the government as a means of income generation.