BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: Austrian Fashion Awards 2013

Raffaela Graspointner

Every year the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture, the Culture Department of the City of Vienna and the Vienna Chamber of Commerce together with the Unit F büro fur mode appoint an independent jury of experts for the AFA - Austria Fashion Awards for Fashion Designers.
I had the honor to take part in the jury panel together with Philippe Pourhashemi, Julia Menthel, Katrin Seiler and Brigitte R. Winkler.
AFA is one of the events of the Festival for Fashion & Photography in Vienna.

Austria Fashion Awards consists of three award categories and for each category the jury selected two finalists before based on their portfolios.

1 Fashion Award of the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture
- Markus Binder & Emil Beindl (Demelrave)
- Raffaela Graspointner (winner)

2 Fashion Awards of the City of Vienna
- BRADARIC OHMAE (winner)
- Femme Maison

3 Fashion Production Award of the Vienna Economic Chamber. (In this category there is a men's wear award and women's wear award)
women's wear:
- meshit (winner)
- Mark & Julia

men's wear:
- Wendy & Jim (winner)

AFA are meant to increase the career chances of the applicants on the international fashion market and to support the professionalisation of the Austrian fashion scene.

Before the jury made their decisions all designers presented their work and there was a short interview with the jury. It was really inspiring to encounter all this designers and encounter their passions and designs. Unfortunately not everyone left home with a price, however all finalists showed great potential.

There are more awards during this festival, Markus Binder & Emil Beindl, won the EVOQUE NextGen Award, an award for promising new label decided by online voting.

Here are impressions from the presentations and the awards ceremony.