Inside the International Talent Support archive
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Fashion
The annual International Talent Support contest celebrated its 15th anniversary this year and FashionUnited was given access to its Creative Archive, featuring more than 16,000 portfolios, 220 outfits, 180 accessories and jewellery pieces, as well as 700 digital photography projects, from more than 80 countries.
Located in the International Talent Support’s Trieste headquarters, the ITS Creative Archive is a treasure trove of emerging fashion, showcasing the early portfolios, art works and garments from its past finalists and winners, including Michael van der Ham, Aitor Throup, Mark Fast, and Haizhen Wang.
Highlights include Chinese designer Chiaki Moronaga who impressed during the 2012 event, Swiss designer Jennifer Thévenaz-Burdet who showcased masks made of cable ties in 2015, and last year’s winner Paula Knorr.
The collection is vast and you could even say that some of the portfolios are pieces of art, with elaborate, handcrafted covers, and each one different. Some had images, sketches, sample of fabrics, while others had poems, technical drawings to describe the inspiration behind their collections. But it was getting up close to the clothing pieces that really showcases the incredible talent that enters the International Talent Support contest each year.
“The ITS archive is unique in that it holds work from multiple designers at the very start of their careers. These early pieces are fuelled by an unfettered creativity, not yet honed to the rigorous demands of a professional career, yet already, showing clear evidence of each designer’s unique signature,” said Oriole Cullen, senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in 2015.
No doubt they are making room for this year’s impressive line-up of designers, including the winners, British footwear designer Helen Kirkum, won the ITS Accessories Award, and New Zealander Mayako Kano, who picked up the main ITS Fashion Award for her ‘Reverse Fade’ collection.
Image and video: Danielle Wightman-Stone