2012 winners are back
ITS 2012 Fashion Collection of the Year Winner Michael Van der Ham and Ichiro Suzuki has been very busy in the last period. He still is, and we imagine he will be until right before leaving for Trieste. We can picture him working like crazy on the new menswear collection he will be presenting in July as part of the prize he won last year. Yes, if you did not know it, Ichiro's prize wasn't just some pocket money (€15,000...and they call it it pocket money!...), it also included an invitation to come back this year as a member of the fashion jury to enjoy the "other side of the fence", presenting a new collection out of competition on the final night on Saturday 13 July with a fashion show entirely organized and handled by ITS. The collection he will be presenting was inspired by the book “The Devil’s Cloth”, written by Michel Pastoureau. Looking back on the history and the connection between patterned, spotted, especially striped clothes and the idea of diversity in the Middle Ages, people in striped clothes were normally described as traitors, impure, aggressive, immoral or deceitful. There is a huge gap between our contemporary sensibility - which turns “variety” into a positive value - and the sensibility of people of the Middle Ages, who invested above all in that notion of pejorative values. Ichiro's collection will be all about re-interpreting and translating this aspect of the Middle Ages into modern garments, and about people in particular clothes that are chosen to designate their negative status: through clothing the outward expressions of their inner selves will be represented.
The opportunity for Ana Rajcevic , last year's Accessories Collection of the Year winner, is practically the same: just like Ichiro she will come back to Trieste as a juror but for ITS ACCESSORIES, presenting her newest work out of competition. Right now she is developing the new pieces which will be showcased here in Trieste, at the same time following the development of her career which lately saw her participate in the prestigious "SHOWcabinet: Prosthetics"exhibition by SHOWstudio (the renowned fashion website by photographer Nick Knight producing some of the coolest fashion films around) which involved also two other ITS finalists, Una Burke and Kat Marks .
At ITS 2013 Ana will be presenting a collection of five sculptural headpieces exploring the fluid concepts of identity-construction and self-representation. It is focused on peeling-off layers of identity, stressing the fragile nature of self and our own conceptions of who we are in relation to the world around us. Elegant and visually striking headwear pieces that will cover the entire face and block the eyes, as a representation of the unknown, of a raw, faceless desire waiting to be unleashed. Underneath the surface lies a face that cannot see and cannot be seen. Instead, the viewers are invited to search for beauty in the hidden corners of their own imagination, a beauty yet to be discovered.
Last year's winner of the SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Jewelry Award Octavia Xiao Zi Yang will come back to ITS 2013 too. Her award included a 6-month internship at the Swarovski headquarters in Wattens, Austria and it is there that she began developing her new collection, with support in the making from the SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS team. The pieces right now should actually be in Shanghai in the hands of a technician and we can't wait to see what the result will be!
This new jewelry collection is inspired by a traditional element in Asian garments, called the Pan Kou. The Pan Kou is the first button in a traditional female Asian dress. It is quite an elaborate button, with decorations on its stitching points, turning it also into an ornamental braiding. The mechanism consists of a simple loop through which you pass the button and lock it. It has been in use for over 400 years, symbolising women's elegant pride as well as the precious opening disclosing the final perimeter of a lady's heart. What stands behind that button, what kind of heart? Is it full of smiles and bliss, or is it filled with tears of disappointment? Whatever the answer, there is one thing that women can do: fasten the button, pick up their pride and look forward, facing the unknown tomorrow. It's as if through a little button we are peeking into a lady's mystique. The design is focused on the development of wearable joinery jewelry exploring the colour varieties of SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS while at the same time trying to express each women's colourful inward world and different emotional state.
Just like you, we're really eager to see what will be the final outcome of these three outstanding talents from the ITS FAMILY. In less than a couple of months sure we'll be amazed once again!
