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ITS Finalists in Showrooms and at Fashion Weeks
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January 23, 2007
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It's a given that the road that leads to becoming a fashion designer is not an easy one. It takes, above all, an unshakable passion that is able to face any difficulty and fight all those who whisper in your ears "give up". And we have proof that true passion never gives up: In these six years ITS has welcomed a number of young fashion designers who have literally fought their way through to live the dream that has never left their minds. And their stubbornness has paid off: Lesley Mobo is working for Yasmin (Melo), Cristian Boaro works for Ferrè, Erik Jan Frenken is Head of Studio at Viktor & Rolf, Hongbo Li is at Christian Dior, Teppei Sugaya, Corina GonzaleZ, Sara Marini, and Christoph Froelich are working for Diesel, Kyoko Iwase is at Givenchy, Fabrizio Talia is working for Moschino, Kiho Kim and Momoko Hashigami are in Sardinia working for Antonio Marras, Igor Alustiza and Erikka S. Bahnsen work for Armani, Lawrence Guerin is at Yves Saint Laurent. ITS has helped them, no doubt, but it's the kind of help an engineer offers when he builds a bridge between point A and point B. Once the bridge is built (and we can assure it takes a year of hard work!), you've got to demonstrate that you have the qualities needed to cross it. And they do.
There is another smaller group of former ITS finalists who are actually beginning to experience what appears to be (according to what we read every year in the application forms for the fashion contest) the dream most sought after: they are working on their own label, displaying it in showrooms and at Fashion Weeks.
There's Joline Jolink (ITS#TWO finalist) who has begun working on her own line since 2005, she has her own studio/showroom since November 2006 and is showing her collections in New York and Amsterdam.
There's Maya Negri (ITS#TWO) who has also recently opened her own studio and even her own boutiques. We'd like to focus on a few of these guys ...
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At 25, Cathy Pill (ITS#TWO winner of Collection of the Year) is literally living her dream. When we heard she was going to show at Paris Fashion Week for the first time a couple of years ago, we thought: "it's too early for her, she might not be ready". As most of those who read us know, we don't look for stars and we don't like them: stars go up in the sky just as fast as they fall out of it. So when we saw Cathy going up so fast, we were worried about it. But two years have passed and Cathy is still there, with lots of enthusiastic comments coming from the most important fashion press (from Vogue USA to Vogue Italy, Elle, Gap...the list is very long...) and opinion leaders, and now she's even been invited to show at Paris Haute Couture. A big honour. And that's another great success in her personal CV. Congratulations Cathy, we have no worries at all now about your future.
Slobodan Mihajlovic's road to success was different from Cathy's. After winning the Maria Luisa Award at ITS#TWO, he's been working for a couple of years at Cavalli while maintaining a continuous collaboration with the brand Mina Poe. Both experiences taught Slobodan a lot and strengthened his abilities and knowledge of fashion, but he always kept his dream very clear in his mind. It was like a lighthouse that took him where he wanted at long last: He found financial support and created his own label, Slobodan *+* (starplusstar), which has been displayed in showrooms in Milan (last September) and Paris (last October during S/S womenswear shows). A huge success: Lots of buyers requested the outfits and several important fashion magazines "stole" them for photo shoots, to the point that very little clothes were left displayed in the showroom, since most had been taken ...
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Danish born Marcus Lereng Wilmont won ITS#FOUR Collection of the Year almost hands down. His aristocratic-samurai inspired collection left everyone speechless, and yours truly has never fulfilled his personal dream of wearing one of those outfits. Since then, Marcus received much attention for his work and immediately started working on a new collection together with Maki Aminaka with which he established a creative duo called "AminakaWilmont". They have been displaying their own menswear and womenswear collections at important fairs like Rendez Vous Paris (Homme and Femme). At present they are working like crazy to have everything ready for the new editions of Rendez Vous Paris (Homme: 26-29 January 07, and Femme: 1-4 March 07) and On/Off (12-15 February 07), the shows for young emerging talents during London Fashion Week, where they will display their new collection in a showroom. Marcus and Maki have had several articles published in the press, most recently in Japan, in magazines like Dazed & Confused, Studio Voice and So-En. Marcus also collaborates with Berlin fashion magazine as a fashion critic and he's even a teacher for a BA level course. He also has an amazing drawing talent and he's been working as a freelance illustrator for various fashion houses and magazines as well. Now, that's definitely a full life!
Another one who's got superlative drawing abilities and is receiving great recognition for his work is Aitor Throup (winner of Collection of the Year and i-D Styling Award at ITS#FIVE). "Aitor Throup could be the star graphic novelist of the 21st century if he so chose" writes Tim Blanks, who has inserted him in Men.Style.Com's list of the 20 "Influencers" who are going to change the way men dress this year (link: http://men.style.com/fashion/style_notes/011207). On the list with him are people like Raf Simons, Tom Ford, Frida Giannini, Helmut Lang, Junya Watanabe...need we say more? He's with some of the most important people in fashion today!! We'll just add Blanks' final comment: "He makes clothes that stand for something, and that's why he's this year's pick to click with the UK's most forward-looking retailers and editors". Aitor has just finished his internship at i-D as a result of the i-D Styling Award he won (the result is a spectacular 8 page article on the February '07 issue that we strongly recommend you take a look at). He is, at present, working on an installation which he will show at "MAN", London Fashion Week's showcase for menswear design (he is up on 16 February 07). It will be a sort of preview of his new seasonal capsule concept, which will be eventually released as a product and sold. The idea is to put out one outfit every season making it the first truly collectable collection. You'll be hearing Aitor's name a lot in the near future ...
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These are only 4 examples that show what can happen after ITS. These examples are part of the reason why we do International Talent Support. And these examples are also for you out there who want to become fashion designers. It is possible. What are you willing to do to live your dream? Do you have the passion it takes?
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