BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: Lichting 2014, supported by V&D

winner Bastian Visch

Lichting 2014 supported by V&D at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam

Traditionally the Lichting show is always one of the highlights of the July edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week. Lichting was founded in 2007 to bridge the gap between the academy graduates and the fashion industry. Lichting is a selection of the very best of each of Holland’s seven fashion academies. Unlike the previous six editions, the 2014 Lichting made possible by V&D, the biggest department store of The Netherlands.
Each academy presented their best graduates and therefore you could say all of them are winners. 14 talented designers competed with each other within in a great show full of promise and authentic ideas. This edition the menswear collections where in particular very strong. Bastian Visch, Royal Academy of Fine Arts graduate won the Lichting 2014 award with his striking menswear collection 'Light Studies'.
“In my work I strive for a scientific approach to design that is unifying for humanity. To achieve an objective essence of aesthetics that erases barriers between cultures, I had to find something that is defining for beauty everywhere. Instead of using an aesthetic defined by hand I needed to let nature define the impression. I managed to find a way to permanently capture sunlight shining on textile with a photographic process. The chosen shapes and colours are the result of mixing a vast amount of cultures and subcultures, and of how shapes and colours occur naturally in nature.”

His price is that he can design a capsule collection for V&D. This collection will be available in V&D stores in the spring of 2015. That is something to look forward to.

Designers & Academies

MAFAD Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design – Dusty Thomas, Milou van Esch
AMFI Amsterdam Fashion Institute – Lisi Herrebrugh, Lotte van Dijk
ArtEZ Institute of the Arts Arnhem - Vera Roggli, Wieke Sinnige
Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam) – Marije Seijn, Klára Válková
HKU The Utrecht School of Arts – Dennis Bareiro, Joëlle Baten
KABK Royal Academy of Fine Arts The Hague – Bastian Visch, Gino Anthonisse
WDKA The Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam – Afra Engel, Lola van Praag

Panel
The winner was chosen by a diverse group of fashion professionals and a group of leading international professionals. This year the panel was formed by Marlo Saalmink (Creative Consultant, Lecturer, Journalist and Brand consultant), Lotte Mostert (fashion designer and product developer and previous Lichting candidate), Jo Simpson (stylist and senior lecturer at Central Saint Martins) and Mathew Stevenson-Wright (menswear fashion editor Wallpaper Magazine). Lichting 2014, the seventh edition, is a project of HTNK Fashion Recruitment & Consultancy, and FashionWeek Nederland, in collaboration with V&D.

http://www.lichting.nl

Report published on KALTBLUT Magazine.

All images are by brankopopovicblog