TRIESTE, Italy — “You have become a strong, conscious and revolutionary generation of ITS. [contestants]. “Everyone gained a human and professional experience.”
So said Barbara Franchin, founder and mastermind of the International Talent Support fashion competition known as ITS, expressing her appreciation to the 16 finalists of the 2023-2024 edition.
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Franchin was visibly emotional. ITS has experienced ups and downs throughout its 20-plus-year history, and although finding a new home in the fields of the CRTrieste Foundation in 2020 seemed like a successful mission when it opened two years ago, Franchin’s passion to do better and bigger leaves him alone. More needs to be fulfilled.
“We need Italian fashion companies to stand by us, to share their experiences with us… knowing that we can give back the output we receive. [from talents] yearly. We need financial support in this operation, which is not only for us, but also for everyone living on this planet. “We need cultural investments, even if they do not provide an immediate return on investment,” he said, and stated that his aim is to find a new home for ITS with an area of approximately 75,000 to 105,000 square meters.
Without naming names, he pointed out the French support system for fashion competitions, looking openly at competitions such as the Hyères Festival that receive support from both corporate and institutional players.
Still, he was excited to announce not only this year’s ITS winners, but also the second exhibition at ITS Arcademy, the competition’s headquarters, archives and multifunctional space covering 7,000 square metres.
The title of the exhibition is “The Many Lives of a Garment”, which is a meta-fashion exhibition that reflects the role of clothes in everyone’s life, their emotional ties and their power to activate memory.
Franchin reappointed Olivier Saillard as show curator, this time with the help of philosopher Emanuele Coccia. Filled with mannequins dressed in the clothes of previous ITS contestants, some scattered around the area as if they were visitors looking at works of art, the exhibition explored the different life stages of clothes, from being displayed in a store window to being tried on in a dressing room to being worn. It is removed by the wearer, then lost, damaged, exhibited in a museum, or even described only in words.
Conceptually, the exhibition relates to the idea that the clothes worn every day are a walking exhibition that suggests the curatorial decisions of the wearer, the curators said.
“This exhibition started thirty years ago, [because] It contains many small experiments that I have done in the past, and for the first time we show them all together in the same place,” Saillard said.
Saillard said the reason for avoiding a traditional fashion exhibition was suggested by Issey Miyake. Saillard quoted the Japanese designer as saying: “He would say that when a dress leaves the atelier, it is only half finished, but when a man or woman wears that dress, it is like 100 percent finished.” “So it’s always like that [fashion] exhibits present a paradox” because they lack user input.
For example: an entire segment of the show was devoted to small frames showing details of shirts Saillard owned and wore; On either side were written texts on the memories and life stories to which each was linked. Two closets displayed Charlotte Rampling and Tilda Swinton’s actual outfits; placed on chairs as if ready to be taken from their users; In another glass display case, there was a wedding dress designed by Valentino Garavani for model Alda Balestra von Stauffenberg.
The content of this second showcase is expected to change over time, as ITS Arcademy hopes that citizens of Trieste will lend their personal clothes, each with emotional meaning, to be displayed for a month.
The radical approach to the exhibition was seen in the section where fashion definitions from literature were compiled; There are no clothes on display. “Clothes, fabrics, and the object itself have an ostentatious and expressive power that transcends their physical presence,” Coccia said.
The second exhibition in the Wunderkammer area is dedicated to the creations of the 2023-2024 finalists under the slogan “Born to Create”, the comprehensive manifesto of ITS.
Both exhibitions will be open to the public until January 6, 2025
ITS Arcademy’s curatorial approach to preserving and archiving the work of young talent as if it were already museum-worthy (a recently introduced tech-enabled digital book allows hard-copy portfolios stacked in library space to be brought to life through cartoon-like animations) allows the ITS team to explore the next generation of designers and is a testament to his determination to promote; has been providing them with financial support and promotion for twenty years.
The former ITS headquarters, a small attic of an 18th-century palace in the city centre, awaits conversion into residential space for the city’s designers and artists to reside; Another project that Franchin hopes will find a backer soon.
On Friday night, the competition’s 2023-2024 jury awarded 13 awards to 16 finalists who were shortlisted from 782 applications from 65 countries.
The ITS Arcademy Prize, which includes a cash prize of 15,000 Euros, was awarded to Japanese talent Momoka Sato, who presented an intriguing collection with a strong and detailed narrative, inspired by a fictional nun living on top of a mountain with a loving nun. next to him is the monk.
Rich in layering and paying homage to traditional Japanese clothing, including the kimono trouser silhouette, the collection features recycling practices such as repurposing the cotton filling of old bedding.
Sato dedicated his collection to his grandmother, with whom he spent time while working on the series. The young designer, who graduated from Bunka Fashion College and received a master’s degree from Nottingham Trent University in England, said that he applied to ITS to introduce his brand, which he officially launched during the pandemic years, to the international audience.
“I didn’t expect that I could win; “That’s why I’m truly honored to receive this award.”
The judges agreed that young creators are increasingly looking at both the inner and outer worlds in ways that put their personal experiences into perspective and are in dialogue with sociopolitical, cultural and anthropological issues.
“They’re much more likely to absorb everything that’s going on in the world,” said Valentina Maggi, director of creative practice at Paris-based consultancy and headhunting firm Floriane de St Pierre & Associès and a member of the jury that included curator Thierry. -Stefano Gallici, creative director of Maxime Loriot and Ann Demeulemeester.
“In the past, creative processes were much more individual, whereas today they are open to and engaged in the social and cultural conversations that are happening,” he added.
According to FIT Museum director Valerie Steele, a longtime ITS juror, fashion creators’ self-perception is shifting gears.
“I think there’s more of a sense among them that the space they’re in is an artistic space, and they’re not always assertive enough to say I’m an artist, but they think fashion is a creative, creative thing. artistic field. And so they still want to be able to follow their own creative turns, like a painter or a musician would, for example. Therefore, it is much more meaningful to investigate their own life history regarding personal interests,” he said.
“It is both more idealistic and more realistic than previous generations. They are aware of every danger and need in fashion,” Steele said. “They are the ones that many people of their generation [think that] fashion is bad, fashion is exploitative, it’s destroying the world… But they also feel like they can make an impact. “And they can take the good parts of fashion and make something that improves the bad parts,” he added.
“I was amazed at how all these talents were so attentive and felt such an urgent need to publicize their positive impact on the fashion system, without leaving anyone out. [messages] and sustainability practices,” echoed Gallici of Ann Demeulemeester.
“During their stay here last week, we discussed much more about the meaning of life and the urgency of avoiding negatively impacting the planet, rather than design and silhouettes,” Franchin explained. “They know our generation won’t do more to save the planet, thinking someone else will take care of it [it]and they know that they are the ones who need to solve these problems.
Franchin highlighted how fashion talents perceive themselves as artists who use fashion as just one of many mediums through which they can explore. “I’ve seen young kids’ aspirations evolve from ‘I want to be John Galliano’ and ‘I want to be an all-encompassing creative director’ to ‘I want to be an artist,'” Franchin emphasized.
Matteo Battiston, chief design officer of EssilorLuxottica, pointed out how socially charged creative projects are and said, “These young people do not see a rosy future like previous generations, but they can transform this ‘dark energy’ into positive power.” . “What emerges from these competitions speaks of generational shifts, whereby the dream of being one of the top creators of an established brand is no longer so appealing; their aim is to ensure that their work is the best and most faithful representation of themselves.”
The ITS Special Jury Prize, with prize money of 5,000 euros, was jointly awarded to Chinese designer Ju Bao and British jeweler Richard Farbey for their cutting-edge knitwear that resembles denim. As a new €10,000 prize backed by Friuli Venezia prepares to make Trieste the 2025 Capital of Culture, the Giulia district has been handed over to Tomohiro Shibuki, who upcycles vintage sportswear by covering entire pieces with needle felting to create an icy effect.
Other awards included the ITS Prize for Responsible Creativity, sponsored by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which awarded 5,000 euros to Italian creator Ivan Delogu, who unveiled a collection crafted from upcycled plastic curtains, dead fabrics and other recycled materials to explore his hometown’s matriarchal society. The region is Italy’s Sardinia.
Other awards were supported by Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Wråd, Lotto Sport, Vogue Eyewear and EssilorLuxottica, as well as ITS partners such as Fondazione Ferragamo, Pitti Immagine and Fondazione Sozzani.
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