What's Up With The ITS Finalists?
March 05, 2010
When we collect material for these kind of articles we realise that 9 years of ITS have created quite an impressive new generation of designers. We can be credited for spotting them out or at least for giving them an international platform to showcase themselves. In some cases their talent was probably so powerful, and pure and evident that it would have been discovered regardless our research. In any case, what strikes us the most when we see so many of our finalists on the most important catwalks or doing installations and presentations is that we know them. We have spent time, special time, with almost all of them. We have fond memories, not of the talent, but of the person, of moments shared together. And when we see a picture of a creation of one of them what we think inside is "I know him, that's a friend of mine".
London Fashion Week is over, and Paris is rolling right now, so there is a lot to talk about our finalists! This is THE period for them to showcase new collections, present new projects, set up installations and presentations...and even stay out all of this hectic circus and work on their own stuff without necessarily showing it to the whole world (this can be either very radical or very lucky....). So let's start because this is not a brief article....
There is probably nothing we need to tell you about Aitor Throup and there is an amazing amount of things we could tell you about him. We could go on for hours and it wouldn't be boring nor for us to talk about him, nor for you to listen. Winner of ITS#FIVE Collection of the Year and i-D Styling Award, Aitor presented his "Legs" Exhibition - a retrospective on all of the trousers he's been developing up until now, have a look at his website www.aitorthroup.com - in Paris on 23 and 24 January. Those of you who missed it in Paris hopefully did not in London on 24 February. The exhibition in London also presented "PRELUDE", the first ever commercially available products from Aitor. A limited edition range of 3 trousers will be available for A/W 2010-11, but keep an eye for the first complete product line which will be presented next June...
ITS#SEVEN i-D Styling Award winner Mark Fast is another guy we might not need to say anything about. He is receiving incredible coverage from the press with icons of the likes of Tilda Swinton wearing his outfits on the cover of magazines...His incredible knitwear (www.markfast.net) is getting more and more sophisticated and refined, as his latest Autumn/Winter collection shown on the LFW catwalk on Saturday 20 February.
Christopher de Vos (ITS#FOUR) and Peter Pilotto (Maria Luisa Award at ITS#THREE) are the duo behind the brand "Peter Pilotto" (www.peterpilotto.com) exploring season by season new prints and new combinations of textiles and prints, while experimenting also on silhouettes and draping, turning their outfits into canvasses. Their latest creations were presented to the London Fashion Week public on 23 February.
...We've only started, so relax, sit back, and go on reading....
ITS#FIVE accessories finalist James Long has established himself as a menswear designer though not forgetting that his bags are an essential part in the expression of his talent, since they are simply beautiful (www.jameslonguk.com). At the time when he was selected for ITS he was graduating from Royal College of Arts and on the verge between fashion design and accessories design (his were bodypieces hinting at his present-day menswear direction). He is now receiving great attention and his collection shown on 24 February during London Fashion Week is proof why.
And great attention is also going to design duo Marcus Wilmont (ITS#FOUR Collection of the Year) and Maki Aminaka with their own line AminakaWilmont (www.aminakawilmont.com). They are constantly exploring new cuts and shapes, incredible graphics for their prints, textiles that can drape exactly how they intend them too. There is an obsessive research in their work than can be understood only by looking very closely at their outfits, though we guarantee that they look stunning even from a distance on the catwalk...Hope you had the privilege of being at their LFW show on 19 February.
Stunning is also the Autumn/Winter collection by the ITS#SEVEN Diesel Award winner Heikki Salonen, presented on the LFW catwalk on 20 February. A powerful mixture with a strong inspiration from Luc Besson's movie "Leon" that creates a strong and at the same time romantic and fragile woman hidden by a pair of black round sunglasses...There is rock, and there is sweetness in Heikki's designs and they are amazingly balanced and proportioned.
Showing at the LFW Exhibition at Somerset House with his amazing millinery was also that incredible talent named Justin Smith, the only ITS accessories finalist to date who won the i-D Styling Award and Maria Luisa Award (both prizes are usually intended for the fashion competition...) at ITS#SIX. There's way too many creative ideas popping out of Justin's head and too little time to turn them all into millinery! Justin simply can't help it, the problem for him is not lack of creativity, it's the opposite way round! Have a look at the incredibly diverse millinery he's been developing throughout the years on his website: www.jsmithesquire.com.
ITS#SEVEN fashion finalist Yang Du is very active. She has been asked by pop music and fashion icon Lady Gaga to develop one of her tour costumes for instance, and she has presented her collection at On/Off during LFW on 19 February. On/Off will also be in Paris from 4 to 10 March (Galerie Cadain, 76 rue Quincampoix, 75003), so you still have time to see her collection if you happen to be there!
Chau Har Lee (ITS#EIGHT Accessories Collection of the Year) displayed her incredible footwear (there's her website if you don't trust us: www.chauharlee.com) with an installation at Fashion East at the Somerset House on 20 February. We really cannot wait to see what she will develop for ITS#NINE, as she will be coming back to stand in the jury and present a new collection....Somerset House welcomed also David Longshaw (ITS#FIVE fashion finalist) and his "Maude" collection, which we widely presented in the following article.
Heather Blake went on to teach footwear design for the MA footwear students of London College of Fashion (with impressive results, we must say...). She won the ITS#FIVE Accessories Collection of the Year Award and worked for Salvatore Ferragamo before that. And she never ceased developing incredible footwear designs with a deep research in shape, the latest development of which was presented at Somerset House during London Fashion Week (you can also view it on her website www.heathrblake.co.uk).
After winning the Vertice Award at ITS#EIGHT with his Andy Warhol inspired collection (which you can view on his website www.michaelvanderham.com), Michael Van der Ham also presented his latest work at Somerset House as a British Fashion Council NEWGEN (standing for "new generation"...).
...That's quite a large number of ITS finalists presenting work, isn't it? And we're still not over!
Paris Fashion Week just started and there's some interesting showrooms we hope you will not miss. Yuima Nakazato (now, he's won the Vertice Award - fashion collection - at ITS#SEVEN and then came back at ITS#EIGHT to win the YKK Award - accessories collection at ITS#EIGHT!) and ITS#FIVE Fashion Special Prize winner Mikio Sakabe (who has successfully established his own label) will be showing together in the same Showroom in rue Charlot 38, from 6 to 11 March. Yuima has also recently developed a costume for Fergie, singer of the Black Eyed Peas. Have a look at their websites also: www.yuimanakazato.com and www.mikiosakabe.com.
Natalia Brilli was a finalist at ITS#THREE and she passed completely to accessories design (a very good decision considering the results she is achieving in this field: www.nataliabrilli.fr). She showed her latest work in Paris in the end of January, and we advise you go and have a look at her website!
Heaven Tanudiredja was, like Yuima, a finalist in two consecutive editions of ITS, ITS#FIVE and ITS#SIX, winning the Vertice Award in the latter. He is working on accessories now and will be presenting his latest jewellery work at a Showroom at 30 Galerie Vivienne (main entrance from 4 rue de Petis Champs, M° 3 Bourse / M° 1 Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre) from 3 to 11 March.
Aside Fashion Weeks, there's a few other news: Una Burke (ITS#EIGHT accessories finalist) was also asked from Lady Gaga to develop an outfit for her shows, just like Yang Du. Lela Scherrer (finalist at ITS#ONE) has recently presented her latest collection which we warmly advise you go and see on her website www.lelascherrer.com.
Then there's ITS#FOUR photography finalist Yojiro Imasaka who is about to have an exhibition in Chelsea, NY, together with Korean artist Jun Ahn from 2 to 13 March, with an opening vernissage on 4 March from 6 to 9pm (attend if you're in New York!!). There's ITS#EIGHT photography finalist Sarah Small who is at present working on the next step of her amazing tableau vivants "The Delirium Constructions" (www.livingpictureprojects.com), ITS#SEVEN photography finalists Martine Fougeron (winner of the SVA Award, she has continued her series on her sons and their friends, www.martinefougeron.com) and Céline Clanet (she continued her "Maze" project in Norwegian Lapland which is turning into a book...). But we'll have plenty of space to talk about this and more in another article....
We think it's enough to say that ITS finalists are alive and awake....Don't you think also?
