BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: Third edition of Łódź Young Fashion

Marlou Breuls

The Łódź Young Fashion Award 2019 gala ended the third edition of the young fashion festival, which this year lasted from 22nd to 26th October.

During the event organized by the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in cooperation with the City of Łódź, each of the five days was filled with attractions, including evening gala events, free workshops, vernissages, film screenings and a panel devoted to sustainable design.

This year's, third edition of Łódź Young Fashion was opened by the Graduation Gala, during which we could see a show of this year's best graduation collections of the Institute of Fashion Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. The main awards for the participants of this year's student fashion festival went to: Agnieszka Szlaga for her collection "The struggle between beauty and ugliness in the new aesthetics of clothes. A collection of women's clothing". (Rector's Award) and Magdalena Pupczyk, who for her proposal "Nomadic Concept of the Contemporary Time. An original collection of shoes and accessories" received, from a specially appointed jury, a prize of 10 000 zlotys.

Maciej Józwicki

On 24th October 2019, the 26th gala of the most important national contest dedicated to young designers took place in the auditorium of the Fashion Promotion Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. The winner of this year's Złota Nitka was Maciej Józwicki. The main prize - the statuette and 30 thousand zlotys – was presented to him by Mariusz Przybylski, the chairman of the Contest Jury. The leading theme of this year's edition of Złota Nitka was "Future" and although the most important contest criterion was the utility of the collection - meeting the "ready to wear" requirement, the jury also took into account a fresh look at world trends and courage in presenting one's own style.
Maciej Józwicki's collection turned out to be just such a proposal, as he defeated 14 other young artists from all over Poland in the final game with his collection "Wiesia".

Friday evening (25th October) was full of emotions, because it was the night when the 5th jubilee edition of the Bra Day gala took place. The Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź is organizing it together with the M. Kopernik Hospital in Łódź and the Foundation "Pełną Piersią" for Breast Reconstruction. It is not fashion that is the main topic of the day, but women with experience of breast cancer. During the event they acted as models. The heroines of Bra Day 2019 presented collections of BIZUUU brands, MMC studio and a beach fashion collection by Dorota Salska during a professionally prepared fashion show. The BRA Day Committee decided to honour with a special title of "Friend of BRA Day" the late Wojciech Szrajber, the long-standing Director of the M. Kopernik Hospital in Łódź, who passed away in September.

Saturday, i.e. the 5th day of the event, was probably the most emotional day of all. On that day the International Contest Łódź Young Fashion Award 2019, in which 12 fashion designers from all over the world competed, was settled. The contest is addressed both to professional designers and debutants – artists associated with fashion schools, art schools and freelancers, born after 1989. The main prize – 30 thousand euro – places it among the biggest contests for designers in the world. The theme of this year's edition was "METROPOLIS".

"The icon collection" – this is the name of the winning collection by Marlou Breuls, inspired by the heroes of the underwater city depicted in the popular cartoon Sponge Bob. This avant-garde game with a pop-culture theme was used by the author to create 15 outstanding silhouettes. The jury appreciated above all the high creativity of the projects and their excellent execution – said Leslie Holden, the chairman of this year's jury in the explanatory statement to the verdict.

The main prize – the Mannequin statuette and 30 thousand euro – funded by the City of Łódź was presented to the winner by the Vice Mayor of the City of Łódź, Krzysztof Piątkowski. Łódź Young Fashion 2019 – a five-day festival of young fashion, during which various faces of fashion and art were presented, was organized by the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in cooperation with the City of Łódź.

https://www.lodzyoungfashion.com