Winners, What Happened?
December 09, 2011
We've always believed that prizes can't be just a trophy, a good handshake and that's it. Or - though it sure does help and isn't a negative thing at all - just hand in a cheque with congratulations. It's always been our firm convincement that prizes given to young talents as the ITS finalists should add something more, represent a real opportunity, the best case scenario being a concrete work placement, an internship, or some good coverage in the international press. A true launch for a career in what they do best. When we have just money prizes, we make it our priority to do all we can to make something happen afterwards. All this said, what happened of the ITS#TEN prizes?
The winner of the D-La Repubblica Award Kristian Guerra, just as promised, received an extensive coverage on the pages of the weekly insert, which you can read here in our complete press review. It had been quite a while since the last time we had an Italian winner, so it aroused some attention in the national press and D-La Repubblica wasn't the only one focusing on Kristian. Two other newspapers gave space to the good news, "Corriere del Veneto" (read it here) and the "Gazzettino" (read it here). And if that wasn't enough, Kristian also won the Fashion Special Prize so he received €5,000 for that. Not bad! And if that still wasn't enough, after ITS Kristian began a collaboration with Italian textiles producer Limonta, for which he will be working on fabrics to be presented at the next edition of Premiere Vision and Milano Unica textile fairs.
Gerardo Vizmanos, the winner of the SVA Photoglobal Award, is already in New York or packing his suitcases and ready to go. The prize that photographer Stephen Frailey decided to assign him is an amazing opportunity: he won a scholarship to the one-year PhotoGlobal photography course at the School of Visual Arts. The chance to experiment with a huge variety of different cameras, of learning from top professionals during workshops, of visiting museums and galleries and attending lectures, working on photo projects...If all this sounds too generic for you, it's easier to understand if you read Clare Bottomley's experience: she won the prize at ITS#EIGHT and gave us a diary of the experience here.
The DISARONNO Photo Award instead was assigned to Nika Kupyrova. Apart from the €5,000 pocket money, her work was displayed at the DISARONNO Contemporary Terraces project, aperitif events organized in London (August), New York (September) and Rome (October). But since we've already written a full article about it, we think it's best for you to read it directly.
The SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS Jewelry Award, the prize of our newly-opened field for Jewelry design, was assigned by the jury - composed of Erickson Beamon designer Vicki Beamon, accessories and jewelry designer Philippe Ferrandis and Swarovski Trend & Design Department Director Ute Schumacher - to the team Sarah Vedel Hurtigkarl & Raluca Grada. The €10,000 prize is nothing compared to the opportunity given by the 6-month internship they will be spending in Wattens, at SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS’ headquarters!
We've recently published also an article about the Modamont Award. Winner Anna Schwamborn had the opportunity to see her accessories collection displayed at the renowned international Trade Show for Trimmings and Supplies, right at the entrance! It was therefore impossible to miss for the over 20,000 visitors who attended. For pictures and a more complete overview, have a look at the article here.
Jury member Kei Kagami on behalf of YKK decided to assign the ITS#TEN YKK Award to bag designer Laura Amstein last July. She received €10,000 and one of her wonderfully moulded leather bags made it on the poster that YKK recently produced for international trade advertising. You can see it here together with the poster images of the past winners of the prize!
And what about our Accessories Collection of the Year Winner Oliver Ruuger? Well, we've already delivered the €5,000 prize and now it's only a question of time: Oliver will use that money to work on a new accessories collection that he will present next year at ITS, while standing in the Fashion and Accessories Jury (if you don't know what that means in terms of contacts...have a look at our juries. It will be surely interesting for him to see the "other side of the barricade" but we have the feeling he'll enjoy much more a chat with Viktor & Rolf or Franca Sozzani, depending on who will be there next year...
The award assigned to knitwear designer Kevin Kramp is a typical example of how ITS is full of unexpected surprises. The Modateca Award simply wasn't there when he landed in Trieste. Our juror Deanna Ferretti just decided she would not accept such a terrific job to remain without a recognition, and on the day of the voting she established the award: €3,000 for Kevin and the promise to remain in touch in the future for advice on his work. And since it's the Queen of knitwear who said it, we are sure Kevin won't miss the opportunity!
Fah Chakshuvej, the winner of the prestigious Maison Martin Margiela Award, went to work in the menswear design team straight away, together with €5,000 in her pocket. She'll be staying there probably for more than the 6-month internship included in the prize...considering her talent, she might not move from there for quite some time.
Another wonderful opportunity is that of Ruth Green, who received the Skunkfunk Sustainability Award. Aside from the €5,000, she is working with the Skunkfunk design team on a capsule collection which will be sold in shops!! We're so curious to see the outcome and we'll surely talk about it on these pages as soon as we have some images!
Everybody's always looking at the Diesel Award winner which this time it went to Israeli designer Niran Avisar for his beautiful menswear dandy collection full of leather treatments and layers. The prize is great: Niran received €25,000 and right now he is in the brand new Diesel headquarters in Breganze, Italy, doing a 6-month internship which might result in a full work placement at the end of the period. So fingers crossed for him, even though he's already - well deservedly - been very lucky.
Finally, our future jury member (together with Oliver) Shaun Samson, who won the Fashion Collection of the Year Award. Which means he's already received €15,000 to develop a new collection he will be presenting next year when, just as Oliver, he will have the chance to have dinner with Daily Telegraph fashion editor Hilary Alexander, discuss the finalists' work with Diesel Art Director Bruno Collin, and decide with the rest of the jury on the future ITS Generation...
