International Talent Support Contest ready to kick off new edition with first sustainable fashion prize
Dominique Muret
today Jul 10, 2019
After taking place last year in June, ITS returns this year to its traditional positioning in July. The 17th edition of the contest for young designers, founded by Barbara Franchin in 2002, will take place this Friday in Trieste at Magazzino 42, the passenger terminal of the ferry port.
A design by Moon Hussain from the UK four the Illycaffè prize - itsweb.org
Over 800 applications from 80 countries arrived at the ITS headquarters this year. Finally, 26 emerging talents from 15 countries were decided on by the jury which was led by Barbara Franchin and the designer Aitor Throup, winner of the fifth edition of the prize, along with 20 other personalities including Y/Project's creative director Glenn Martens, Kering's sustainable development director Marie-Claire Daveu, and Diesel and OTB Group founder and long-time supporter of the event, Renzo Rosso.
The 26 finalists will now compete for the main prize, the ITS Award, offered by Allianz, of €15,000 and given to the best fashion project (ready-to-wear, accessories, or jewellery). The winner will also benefit from the support of the tutoring and consulting department of Pitti Immagine for one year and will be given the opportunity to present a collection at the next edition of Pitti Uomo in January 2020 for menswear or the Super de Milan trade show for women's ready-to-wear.
The competition also includes €5,000 awarded by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Italian fashion's governing body, as well as other prizes given by the numerous sponsors of the programme including Swatch, Tomorrow, Coin Excelsior, and Vogue Talents.
The OTB Prize of €10,000 will also be awarded at the event which offers the possibility of doing an internship at one of the brands of Renzo Rossi's fashion group. Rosso is a long-time partner of the event and also offers the Diesel Prize which includes a paid six-month internship at the denim brand.
Three new awards have been created this year. The organisers wanted to focus on sustainable development, "a pressing issue, impossible to avoid for the fashion industry as it is the second most polluting industry in the world and has found itself carrying out necessary research for solutions to transform itself in the face of this global emergency." The ITS Sustainability Award will award €3,000 to the winner who has applied the most stringent principles of sustainability to their project.
Another new edition is the Lotto Sport Award. Three finalists, the South Korean Jimin Kim, Swiss Rafael Kouto, and Finnish Anni Salonen, were selected to develop a complete outfit inspired by the world of tennis and to reimagine some of the sportswear brand's classic sneakers. The winner will be awarded a three month internship at Lotto Sport Italia over the course of which they will produce a capsule collection of shoes and clothing.
Finally, besides the fashion awards, the director of Illycaffè, Carlo Bach, has selected 10 finalists and asked them to creatively reimagine the traditional café waiters' attire. The winner will be awarded the all new prize of ITS Fashion@Work by Illy with €10,000.
Swatch, which rewarded pure creativity with a special prize, launched last year with the new formula "It's time for coffee" with Illycaffè. The prize was awarded to the British designer Tolu Coker in 2018. Over the past year, Coker had a three-month stay at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai and created a series of artistic cups and other special products which will be unveiled at the event in Trieste this Friday.
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