Łódź Young Fashion Award 2018

Laima Jurča

ŁÓDŹ YOUNG FASHION AWARD 2018

Since 2017, the city of Łódź repositioned itself as a relevant moment in the year for the emerging young designers. The international contest “Łódź Young Fashion Award” dedicated to professional designers and debutants - artists associated with fashion schools, art colleges and freelancers, born after 1988. The theme of this year's edition was "FREEDOM". On October 20, twelve finalists where given the stage on the last day of Łódź Young Fashion festival.
Twelve outstanding designers presented their collections at the Academy of Fine Arts Łódź, the venue where all fashion shows of Łódź Young Fashion take place. Laima Jurča from Latvia was named winner by the jury.  The main prize - the Manequine statuette and 30,000 the euro was handed over by the Major of the City of Lodz, Hanna Zdanowska. Emilie Thirion from Belgium won the special prize of 2,000 euro by the Academy of Fine Arts Łódź. 
The winning collection, PIECGADES ĢENERĀL MĒĢINĀJUMS, thematically refers to the Soviet era - the period of empty shops, limited choice and all-encompassing drabness, which forced huge creativity and ingenuity, and encouraged to create bold things in the comfort of your home. Her author studied "Art of Fashion" at the Art Academy of Latvia and "Fashion Design" at Latvijas Mākslas Akademy. Her plans are to devote her prize to creating her own brand.
Łódź Young Fashion is a great new event organised by Academy of Fine Arts Łódź and City of Łódź, making it again the most interesting fashion event in Poland.

The Finalists:
Barbara Byleuskaya, Sandra Magdalena Dąbrowska,  Katarzyna Dworecka, Anna Gulbe, Laima Jurča, Baiba Tamane, Emilie Thirion, Tanya Tur, Sara Valenci, Riddhi Vora, Jackob Buczynski, Tjaša Zalar

Jury: Leslie Holden, Alberto Caselli, Branko Popovic, Studio MMC, Hanna Zdanowska, Kasia Sokołowska, Jolanta Rudzka-Habisiak, Tomasz Ossoliński, Dawid Tomaszewski, Joanna Strzelecka,Marta Drożdż, Marcin Świderek

http://lodzyoungfashion.com
All images by brankopopovicblog

Emilie Thirion at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2016

Belgian menswear designer Emilie Thirion graduated with honours from HELMo in Liège. She presneted her new collection 'Big Boy Lost in the big City Life' at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2016.

With her playful take on menswear she caught attention by the audience.

Curious to know more about Emilie, please read the Q&A.

When did you realize you wanted to be a fashion designer?
Very late actually, only a few days before I entered my fashion school. Before that, I enter an architecture and engineering school which I had prepared for and dreamt of since I was 6 years old. Finally I found out this wasn’t my life at all. I was looking for something more human, more creative, more authentic. I remember saying to myself “You have always wanted to be an architect-engineer and it’s a real disaster, why not trying something completely different and very surprising? Maybe that is the key to happiness : a spontaneous and adventurous life.” Two days after, I started my fashion courses, and it was the perfect match! Now it’s been 4 years since I started making fashion design, and it’s my life.

What are your main achievements in your career at this moment? 
 Simply having the audacity to stand out and begin it (my career).

In what projects are you involved at this moment? 
The launch of my brand, the production of the collection “Big Boy Lost in the big City Life” (the one I will show during the festival) for a shop in Japan and the creation of the next one. I am also involved in a contest “Urban Craft” which the aim is to highlight the manual craft.

How would you define fashion? 
A wearable emotion, a way to move people. Emotions are everywhere, they just need to be seen and felt, why not wearing it?