ITS#SEVEN FASHION&ACCESSORIES JURY BIOGRAPHY

BERNADETTE WITTMAN GLITTENBERG
Founder and Head of BWG
Bernadette Wittmann Glittenberg has over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry, from marketing to consulting through sales strategy,production of fashion shows and selection juries etc .During her international career she worked with renowned fashion designers and houses such as Dries Van Noten, Rochas by Olivier Theyskens, Dirk Schonberger, and guided emerging talents and events such as Kostas Murkudis, Spastor, Bread & butter Studio to develop their businesses in both a creative and a commercial way. With her company BWG Fashion, Bernadette is mainly working in the fields of creative consulting and commercial guidance, and she recently started collaborating on special projects that relate to fashion and fashion design, for example collaborations with fashion schools and exhibition projects around the work of specific designers. BWG also acts as a bridge between fashion designers and the industry, drawing upon a well-established database (providing contact details of many key players in the fashion industry).

DEANNA FERRETTI
Entrepreneur
Deanna Ferretti Veroni started her career in Reggio Emilia, Italy more than 30 years ago. She has since then successfully collaborated with some of the most important designers of this past century. She met Kenzo when she was barely 25 years old and with him she worked successfully for over 20 years. During the 70's she collaborated with Yves Saint Laurent (Tricot e Variation), Rena Kraft, Chiwitt, Frapp, Luis London, Blaky Dress, Giorgio Correggiari, Popy Moreni and Michelle Bruyere. In the 80's she started to have her first licences with Adrienne Vittadini, Armani and Joseph. Their collections were drawn by John Galliano and John Richmond. In the 90's, she worked for Martin Margiela, Gai Mattiolo, Valentino, Neil Barret and for many others brands. She has a wide experience in textiles and knitwear but she cannot be called neither a fashion designer nor simply a business woman. Actually, she is an atypical figure born for realise almost every designer's dream. Now, every three or four years her company supports a new young talent, because Miss Deanna is a symbol of originality and quality.

ELISA PALOMINO
Head of the studio at Diane von Furstenberg
Born in Valencia, Spain, she leaves for London in 1989 to study at Central St Martins (MA Fashion and textiles).She started her professional career in New York in 1992, soon she moved back to London to work for Timney Fowler ( Furnishing Textiles ). In 1995 she joined Moschino and design for five years for the "Couture" and "Cheap and Chic" line. In 2000 Elisa moved to Paris at John Galliano as the head of the studio and she also worked on Christian Dior PAP and Haute Couture. Their collaboration lasted seven years. She was head of the studio for Roberto Cavalli for a short while. Currently she is the head of the studio at Diane von Furstenberg, New York. She is also an external teacher at Central Saint Martins, UK and at Shenkar University, Israel.

MARIA LUISA FRISA
-Curator & Journalist-
Especially interested in the phenomenon of overlapping in the arts, fashion and design, Maria Luisa Frisa studies the complexity of the contemporary imagination in her transdisciplinary projects. She curated (with Francesco Bonami, Stefano Tonchi) the exhibitions: Uniform: Order and Disorder, at the Stazione Leopolda of Florence and at the New York's PS1 (2001); (with Stefano Tonchi) Excess. Fashion and the Underground in the 80's at the Stazione Leopolda of Florence (2004); Italian eyes. Fashion photography from 1951 to today, at the Rotonda di via Besana in Milan (2005); (with Francesco Bonami, Stefano Tonchi) Human Game. Winners and Loosers at Stazione Leopolda of Florence (2006); The Coloured Rooms in occasion of 60 anniversary of Emilio Pucci, Palazzo Pucci, Florence (2007); (with Vittoria C.Caratozzolo, Judith Clark) Simonetta. La prima donna della moda italiana at Galleria del Costume, Palazzo Pitti, Florence (2008). She is the fashion curator for the editorial and communications projects of the Fondazione Pitti Discovery of Florence. With Mario Lupano and Stefano Tonchi she co-authored Total Living (2002), and with Raf Simons and Francesco Bonami, The Fourth Sex. Adolescent Extremes (2003). With Francesco Bonami, she edited the catalogue of the Biennale di Venezia entitled Dreams and Conflicts. The Viewer's Dictatorship (Marsilio, 2003). She directs Mode (Marsilio Editore), a publishing project focusing on the ideas and figures in fashion. Since 2003 she has been working on the nomad project Laboratorium, a name for a variable nucleus of people from different professions experimenting strategies in visual communications processes. She chairs the Degree course in Fashion Design at the Art and Design Faculty of the ?Università di Venezia? (IUAV).

MARIA LUISA POUMAILLOU
Founder and Buyer for Maria Luisa Boutiques
Maria Luisa's adventure began in 1988 with the opening of her first boutique in Paris in a very unconventional street - 2, rue cambon ? as unconventional were at that time the fashion designers' collections that she had chosen to launch: John Galliano, Helmut Lang, Ann Demeulemeester, Martin Margiela to name just a few! These almost unknown fashion designers were to become fashion icons quite immediately. In the years to follow Maria Luisa's fame as a visionary woman spotting the most-famous-to-become designers has never stopped growing. Maria Luisa now owns and directs 4 boutiques where some of the most innovative and outstanding fashion designers ? from Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Rochas to Charles Anastase or Nicolas Andreas Taralis. At 38, rue du Mont Thabor, the "mixte" shop, focused on younger and emerging talents It will welcome the collection of the winner of the Maria Luisa Award in the form of a dedicated shop-window.

VALENTINA MAGGI
Director of the Design Practice at Floriane de St. Pierre
Graduated in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano, Valentina Maggi began her professional career in the Conservation and History of Architecture Department of the Politecnico di Milano. With her passion for Design in the wider sense, Valentina Maggi joined FLORIANE DE SAINT PIERRE & ASSOCIES in 1999 and has headed up the Design Practice since 2000.

WILBERT DAS
Diesel Creative Director
Diesel Creative Director Wilbert Das was born in Holland in 1963. He grew up on his family's dairy farm, where he worked a year before departing in 1983 to study fashion design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem, Holland. Upon completing his degree in 1988 Wilbert was interviewed for a job at Diesel and hired on-the-spot literally interviewed one Autumn morning and began work that very afternoon. He started as a designer on the Male, Accessories, Leather, and Kids lines. Wilbert soon rose to head the style office of Diesel, and in 1993 was given the official title of Creative Director, with responsibilities ranging from clothing & accessory design to advertising & communications, merchandising, retail & interior design (including showrooms & even hotels), planning of fashion shows & events, as well as working on new businesses. Literally all aspects of the Diesel brand's style and image have fallen under Wilbert's responsibility. Wilbert's legacy as creative director has featured a concentration on constant innovation, both in clothing and communications. The defining aspects of his personality are humility and a quiet, low-key approach to the industry. Wilbert stays largely out of the fashion spotlight, focusing instead on creating a harmonious creative culture within his team, a structure based on collaboration and nurturing rather than individualism and competition. Participation in events such as ITS and other programs to support young, unproven creatives are a natural extension to this. Wilbert was a founding member of ITS and is now is in his 5th year on the jury.

For the ITS#ACCESSORIES area jurors will be joined by Kei Kagami

KEI KAGAMI
Fashion Designer
Kei Kagami initially studied architecture and worked as studio assistant to the pre-eminent figurehead of Twentieth Century Japanese building design, Kenzo Tange. During this period Kagami realised his true vocation and promptly enrolled at Tokyo's Bunka College to study tailoring. Building a bridge between the two disciplines, the move into fashion was a sort of logical progression. In 1989 Arriving on the doorstep of John Galliano's studio in London his talent and determination were instantly recognised and Galliano put him to work without hesitation, and he remained there as Galliano's studio assistant for three seasons working very closely with his mentor. In 1990 with the help of Sisheido, Kagami enrolled at the prestigious Central Saint Martins. In 2001, his first catwalk show was held off-schedule at The Bulgarian Embassy in London. He has shown in London for several seasons and now presents his catwalk show in Milan. Kagami's first shoe-exhibition was held at a gallery in Milan in 2003. Transcending fashion, Kagami's intricate, structural designs have been displayed in museums and galleries across the world including the Museum of Modern Art (Belgrade), Au Musee du Textile et des Costumes de Wesserling (France), Design 21 exhibition (New York), triennale (Milano), Rooms (Tokyo) "The Fashion of Architecture" (London and New York), "Body Extensions" (Switzerland).

Some days later, on April 17th ITS#PHOTO projects will be reviewed by the president of ITS#PHOTO jury and artistic director of the photo exhibition Denis Curti.

ITS#SEVEN PHOTO JURY JURY BIOGRAPHY

DENIS CURTI
Photographic critic and Director of Contrasto, MI
Denis Curti in the last fifteen years has been involved in many of the most important Italian institutions and projects regarding photography. He has been for ten years, from 1992 to 2002, director of "Fondazione Italiana Per la Fotografia" in Turin and took care from 1995 to 2001 of the "Biennale Internazionale di Fotografia". In 2000 he became a member of the international comittee of critics which organized the first edition of "BIG, International Biennale of young artists" in Turin. He collaborated as photography critic for Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera and weekly magazine VIVIMILANO from 1990 to 2004. In 2002 and 2003 he has been curator of photography auctions for Sotheby's, Milan. From 2001 to 2003 he provided artistic counselling for "Contrasto" exhibitions and from 2003 he is director of the Milan "Contrasto" centre and member of "Forma-centro Internazionale di fotografia" boards of directors