Taro for Diesel
February 27, 2008
| Taro Horiuchi graduated from Hogeschool Antwerpen in 2007 with the best grades of his class. We first met him in March last year during the ITS#SIX Scouting Tour and again just a few months later in June for the school fashion show. On this last occasion he had prepared an amazing installation in the cellars of a medieval building in Antwerp to present his collection to the jury and press, demonstrating an already excellent ability in communicating his work. No wonder he was selected as a fashion finalist for ITS#SIX. After his participation at ITS - where he won the Diesel Award - he was also involved in "New Designers Met in Europe", an exhibition held in Tokyo to uncover new talented designers from Japan and abroad (other ITS finalists were involved in this project and you can read about it here. Taro doesn't know it yet, but he will be the last one to design a capsule collection produced & distributed worldwide by Diesel as part of the prize. This is because the Diesel Award has changed radically for ITS#SEVEN: the winner will not be designing a capsule collection anymore and will instead receive considerable economical support (€50.000) to help launch his/her career, together with the opportunity of having an internship in Diesel. The pictures that go with this article therefore represent the end of an era that through the years has seen six finalists of ITS injecting their creativity into a 5 piece collection for Diesel. The first to win the Diesel Award as we have known it up to now was Einav Zucker. That was more than six years ago at ITS#ONE and after her came Teppei Sugaya, Lesley Mobo, Christoph Frohlich, Daniel Ivarsson and now Taro Horiuchi. The experience for these six ITS finalists has been a precious one. Let's go through the steps of the project. |
It all begins immediately after the event in July. About a week or so after ITS#SIX, Taro flew to the Diesel HQ in Italy to discuss his ideas for the collection together with the Diesel team. Diesel always leaves complete creative freedom to the winners of their award, simply pointing out the limits, production-wise, which must be taken into consideration. For example, the final retail price of the pieces obviously depends on how complicated the design is, which fabrics you use, etc.After this first meeting, Taro had about 5 weeks to prepare the final designs complete with technical drawings & paper patterns. So around the end of August it was again time to meet with Wilbert Das (Diesel's creative director) and his team to discuss the final designs together. |
 Once an agreement is reached on the final designs everything is ready to produce the first prototypes. Needless to say, this is a very important step in the process because it makes it possible to finally understand if the drawings translate properly into clothes, if the right kind of fabric has been chosen, if the fit is ok...It is the right time to adjust any imperfection s or details that are not as they should be. An essential intermediate step on the road to the final result! |
 |
|
When all problems with the prototypes were solved, the collection was officially ready to go to production. After that Taro had to think out the concept for the photo shoot of the collection (to be used in Diesel press releases and in communications to promote Taro's work) and follow the development of in-store installations for the collection with Diesel. A complete fashion designer has to know how he wants his/her collection to be communicated, in photos as well as in shops! This can determine the success or failure of his/her work. For the photo shoot Taro had a very special photographer: Maria Giulia Giorgiani, photo finalist at ITS#SIX and winner of the MINI Clubman Tour in Tuscany, who is now working in Diesel as a graphic designer! An ITS fashion finalist did the collection, an ITS photo finalist is responsible for the images to communicate it. We can't think of a better combination! |
 |
|
Taro's collection is now ready to be distributed and sold worldwide! Keep an eye on the Diesel flagship store nearest to you. The Diesel Award capsule collection is done in limited edition, but this one's even more special: it's limited and it's the last one... |
