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Finalist of ITS, Where art Thou?
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February 22, 2006
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As the regular visitors of our website surely know, ITS doesn't forget the finalists of the past editions, and continues to keep in touch as much as possible with all of them to know what they are doing, if we can help in any way, or even just to say "hello!". The Schools & Contestants department in our office is on the phone (or sending emails) every now and then to know 'what's up'. There's a neatly kept archive where all of this info and news are, so whenever someone in the office thinks "wait a sec, what's that finalist doing at present?", they can go there and have a look. This by the way is an archive that anyone can consult! It is very easy: all you have to do is click on 'ITS TALENT'. Actually, this section is maybe the most important for us. ITS is a big family made up of many friends, and this section testimonies how we keep in touch with them and follow their future. What this article wants to do is display all together some of the news you can find in ITS TALENT, in order to give a general overview...are you ready?
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Let's start with finalists from last year's new photography contest: Danica Kovacevic and Reed Young. Danica was in Prague and Reed was in New York until about a week ago. In this precise moment they're in Treviso, Italy, doing an internship at Fabrica (the world renowned centre for communication) in the Photography division of the centre, headed by Enrico Bossan, who was among the jurors of ITS#PHOTO at ITS#FOUR. This internship possibility started out right after last year's event, when Mr. Bossan asked us to put him in touch with Reed and Danica. The experience is a big one for them, and it will help them strengthen and hopefully build some precious contacts!
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Danielle Mourning, last year's winner of ITS#PHOTO, is getting ready for take off, destination Hong Kong. For her prize won at ITS#FOUR she will be in the Far East during the month of March, working on the photo shoot which will be published on the June issue of MINIInternational magazine. This issue will be distributed at ITS#FIVE to all of the guests at the event. So pretty soon she's going to be shooting street landscapes and street people over there. Danielle is going to be back at ITS#FIVE to present her photos, which will also be displayed in the location. Pack your suitcase Danielle, we'll see you in July!
Lots of things have happened to the fashion finalists too. I already know I won't be able to talk about al of them (I mean, I could tell you "this does this, that does that "in a dreary schematic way and talk about everyone...but it would be so annoying...) since I'd fill pages and pages. I'll just pick some, all right? You know where to go for the rest (did I hear anyone say ITS TALENT?)...
Christoph Froehlich is working on the Diesel Award collection (since he won the prize last year...), which will be presented in March. Can't show you anything right now, apart from me being probably one of the first to fight my entrance in the shop to buy at least one piece!
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Haizhen Wang has been contacted by Boudicca (aka: Zowie Broach and Briab Kirkby) for an interview, which went very well, and he's going to work for them! A great experience awaits him, because Brian and Zowie are simply fantastic people who will teach him a lot.
Elisa Palomino, John Galliano head of studio and member of the fashion Jury at ITS#FOUR, part of the ITS family since she's so close to our philosophy (she's an honorary Ever!), picked a number of finalists and gave them each three-months internship. Masha Lamzina, Lihi Hod and Lucja Wojtala. Lucja has almost finished, while Lihi will be over in April and Masha is about to start. An amazing opportunity for all three!
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Mie Albaek Nielsen and Caroline Hansen, the winners of the Ingeo™ Sustainability Award at ITS#FOUR, have used the money of the prize for a great initiative: they have rented an office on Copenhagen where they have created a collective of all girl graphic designers. Momoko Hashigami we've already talked at large (go in the FEATURED section of the news, and click on the article entitled "The way life crosses and weaves its webs"). She's working on her final year collection at St. Martins (by the way Momo, as soon as you have something to show us...well, SHOW US!) in London, and she's learning italian! Momo goes on walking her road, nothing can stop her, trust me. And when she's over with St. Martins, there's Antonio Marras waiting for her in Sardinia...
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As far as concerns ITS#THREE finalists, Sita Fischer was recently contacted by Linea Più (one of the most important producers of thread in the world) and has done PITTI FILATI this February. It's no surprise; she was able to turn a knitwear skirt into an underwater landscape! The collection she presented at ITS was simply gorgeous. Crazy (and enormously talented) Takashi Sugioka is at present in Italy! He's working on his label with a company in Prato (ABCI) which has offered to produce it. I wonder if he speaks some Italian now...
Arunabh Sharma (finalist at ITS#TWO) is currently in Paris, studying on a master at IFM. He had been working in India until recently, and when we met him in India last year he had told us he wanted to make it to Europe to do a masters? class and learn more and strengthen his talent. Well, now you made it, Arunabh, and we're so proud of you!
To end this very brief overview on our former finalists, I can tell you that Cathy Pill (ITS#TWO Collection of the Year) is doing really really good. She's been showing her collection in Paris Fashion Week... need I say more?
As I look at the list, I realize that the number of young talents that have passed through ITS is now very long: Einav Zucker,Eric Jan Frenken, Bernadett Penkov, Anne Ventzel, Hamid Ed Dakhissi....there are now over a hundred, all of them are living their lives. Some of them are still in fashion and having success, others have disappeared and we know nothing of them (hopefully, these are few), others have raised families, others do completely different things from what brought them to ITS...a big big network of people. I like to picture in my mind all of these beings as if they picked a magenta thread when they passed from ITS and have never dropped it since. As if they're still connected to the thread...a very long one, a sort of Ariadne's thread, that lead them out of this labyrinth called life and maybe, in the future, back to us. It's a very romantic image I guess. I love being romantic in my mind...everything is great if you make it so in your dreams.
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