FASHION : Aspiring fashion scribes, this is for you

If you dream of sitting on a little gilt chair at the Paris haute couture shows making your comments on the frou frou flounces of Lacroix and Dior, then the Jackie Moore Award for Fashion Journalism is for you.

Now in its fifth year, the award is given for promising fashion journalism. The prize is an all-expenses paid trip to Paris to report on the zenith of fashion design, the haute couture. The competition is open to anyone with not more than three years' experience in fashion writing. There is no age limit.

Jackie Moore was a prominent freelance fashion journalist who was killed in the Sheraton Heliopolis Hotel fire in Cairo in March 1990. The award was set up by journalists and publicists within the fashion industry in memory of a journalist who was much admired. The Independent's fashion editor, Marion Hume, who survived the Cairo hotel fire, is one of the judges.

Other judges this year are Nicola Jeal, editor of Elle, Louise Chunn, associate editor of Vogue, Anne Simpson, chief assistant editor of the Glasgow Herald, Francesca Fearon, freelance fashion journalist and a contributor to the Independent's fashion pages and Harriet Quick, fashion editor of the Guardian. This year's winner will have his or her report from Paris printed in the Guardian.

The task is to write on two subjects, using not more than 500 words for each: 1. Describe your worst fashion mistake. 2. Is fashion going out of fashion?

Because the haute couture shows have been scheduled earlier this year, prospective entrants should get on with the challenge straight away, because all entries must be received by Friday 2 June.

Entries should be submitted to The Jackie Moore Award for Fashion Journalism, c/o Erika Frei Associates, 2 New Burlington Place, London W1X 1FB.