International Talent Support reveals ‘The Utopians’

The International Talent Support competition has selected 41 finalists for its 15th edition across fashion, accessories, jewellery and art, which will be presented in Trieste, Italy in July.

The emerging designers platform received 935 applications this year from 78 countries, with students from 200 fashion academies in 53 nations taking part in the competition's first phase. It received applications from both students in their final year as well as from recent graduates, which founder of the competition, Barbara Franchin states is a “generation of creatives that are changing their skin”.

The finalists were selected after a week of deliberation by a judging panel that includes fashion designers Iris Van Herpen, Nicola Formichetti, and Kei Kagami as well as Swatch creative director Carlo Giordanetti and British fashion editors Colin McDowell and Sarah Mower.

Organisers stated that all the applications showed an “amazing level of quality, making the selections particularly challenging,” with the 41 finalists hailing from 21 nations: Austria, China, South Korea, Denmark, France, Japan, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK.

The competition has four areas, ITS Fashion, Accessories, Jewellery and Artwork, with the fashion category selecting 11 finalists, including German designer Anna Bornhold, who was the winner of the Chloé prize at the Hyères International Photography and Fashion Festival in the South of France. There is also a number of Asia talents including Séro Oh and Shinhwan Kim from South Korea and Cheng Zong Yu from Taiwan.

British accessory and jewellery designers selected for International Talent Support prize

In the ITS Accessories category two designers from the UK were selected, Helen Kirkum from the University of Northampton, who won first prize at the Cordwainers’ Footwear Student of the Year Awards in 2014, and Melanie Lewiston from the Royal College of Art who specialises in headpieces. They are up against designers from China, Italy, Japan, Paraguay, South Korea and Taiwan.

The third British-based designer to be selected in the competition was Elizabeth Lee, a Chinese-Taiwanese born designer based in London who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014 with a degree in jewellery design and is currently studying an MA in Jewellery and Metal at the Royal College of Art.

In total there are 37 designers, as four of them will compete in two categories, including Taiwanese designer Cheng Zong Yu and Lithuanian designer Birute Mazeikaite, who have both been selected in the fashion and artworks categories, while Slovenia designer Jana Zornik is nominated for the accessories and artwork categories, and Japanese designer Chinami Tokizawa is a finalist in both the jewellery and artwork categories.

Asia has the strongest presence with 18 finalists, closely followed by Europe with 17, but there are notable additions this year with finalists selected from New Zealand and Paraguay.

The International Talent Support prize final event will take place in Trieste, Italy on July 16.

Images: courtesy of International Talent Support