€25,000 + a 6-month Internship!!
February 12, 2010
Diesel - main partner for ITS#FASHION and supporter of ITS since its inception - has been giving amazing opportunities to quite a number of ITS finalists throughout the years. With the Diesel Award 6 finalists had the chance to develop a freely inspired mini-collection working side by side with Diesel who produced it and distributed it in its hippest flagship stores around the world, also organising presentations to the press. Another 3 have been working with the Diesel creative team at its HQ in Italy for a 6-month internship, and at times have stayed longer. Not to mention the many others who Diesel collaborated with. At present, Alice Knackfuss (Winner of the Diesel Award at ITS#EIGHT), Heikki Salonen (Diesel Award at ITS#SEVEN), Maria Giulia Giorgiani (ITS#SIX) and Teppei Sugaya (Winner of the Diesel Award at ITS#TWO) are part of the Diesel team.
Fashion competitors for ITS#NINE are asked to work on a project that will definitely put their creativity to the test. As we already stated in another article, expressing creativity can be easy if you do it freely without being asked to answer a specific request. But what happens when Diesel re-writes the Diesel Award and challenges all young fashion designers to propose sketches for an ideal Autumn/Winter 2010 collection? In this case, creativity needs to follow a track, it cannot express itself wildly but must understand what is requested and answer accordingly.
First of all, do not misunderstand what Diesel is asking. They are not exploiting you in order to design their next collection! Their Autumn/Winter 2010 collection is already done so this is not the case! They are very interested in seeing what you would have developed. They want to see which road you would have taken after reading the brief they prepared for you.
When you download the entry requirements PDF for ITS#FASHION to enrol in ITS#NINE, you will find a link to a sample book that Diesel has prepared for you to develop the Diesel Project. It is a selection of pages from the early nineties Diesel lookbooks that represent what Diesel was, what it stood for, its mood & what its signature style was at the time. You must base your design process for this project on what you see on these pages.
This is your chance to put your creativity directly in the hands of the Diesel Creative Team Coordinator! Make the best out of this opportunity! The winner of the Diesel Award will receive €25,000 and a 6-month internship at the HQ in Italy! Apart from the prize money - there is certainly no need for us to tell you that you can do quite a lot of things with that sum! - think about what an opportunity it would be for you to work for 6 months with the creative team of one of the biggest and most international fashion brands around. There is so much you can learn: production, communication, distribution....there are dozens of things to take care of when you are a brand like Diesel and each one is key to success.
If you win the prize and are the lucky one to do the internship, you will learn that it's not just about designing, it's about following a whole process that goes from the idea in your head to the shelves in the shops. It's sort of a crash course to give you a complete understanding of how tough it is in the fashion world to efficiently insert a new product into the market.
So take your time to present a convincing proposal! Do not get afraid, you don't have to produce anything at this stage, apart from a sketchbook! Very carefully read point 6 of the entry requirements where everything about the Diesel Project is explained in detail.
Remember that these kinds of projects are actually possibilities for you to show potential employers your talent, to convince them you are what they are looking for. It is one of the many tools we have to put you in touch with important brands in the field. We guess it is not necessary to tell you that the more you show them what you are made of at this stage, the better opportunities might arise!
