In their search for India’s talented emerging sustainable designers, Hong Kong based charity Redress and India’s oldest multi-designer store launched The EcoChic Design Award 2015/16 , co-hosted by Tina Tahiliani Parikh, Executive Director, Ensemble, who was accompanied by Christina Dean, Founder of Redress and sustainable fashion expert and designer, Paromita Banerjee.

“The EcoChic Design Award is a powerful platform that is driving change in the fashion industry,” says Christina Dean, Founder of Redress. “Over the last five years, we’ve introduced sustainable fashion education to thousands of emerging designers, influenced global fashion brands to produce upcycled collections and reached millions of consumers. Our expansion to India is a huge step for us and for sustainable fashion as we enter this exciting, talented market to continue to inspire tomorrow’s leaders to be agents of change.”

Giving chance to India-based emerging designers to participate in the world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition, the EcoChic Design Award, challenges emerging fashion designers with less than three years’ experience to create high fashion with minimal waste. Following the online application deadline of 15 August 2015, ten finalists from Asia and Europe will then create and present their sustainable collections at Hong Kong Fashion Week in January 2016 where the winner will be announced. First Prize is the opportunity to design a new upcycled collection for the leading luxury brand, Shanghai Tang. In addition, the best Indian designer applicant will be featured at IMG’s Lakmé Fashion Week in August 2015

At Pitti Uomo88:

The spotlight was on Africa’s talents with the “Constellation Africa” show at Pitti Uomo 88, to promote young and talented designers from the continent.

To confirm the vastness and quality of international participants in Pitti Uomo, over the past few seasons the Fondazione Pitti Discovery has been setting aside a special area for the rising stars on the world’s economic and creative stage with the Guest Nation project, in cooperation with the ITC ETHICAL FASHION INITIATIVE.

A runway show at the Dogana (Via Valfonda) featured four brands that privilege manufacturing in their home countries ie. Dent de Man, MaXhosa by Laduma, Orange Culture and Projecto Mental  presented their men’s collections.

ORANGE CULTURE // Adebayo Oke-Lawal from Nigeria

Orange Culture is a contemporary menswear brand created by Nigerian designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal in 2011, was recently shortlisted by Vogue Talents for Africa and LVMH’s 2014 Young Fashion Designer Prize. The brand combines classic and contemporary western silhouettes with an African edge with a fusion of Nigerian silhouettes, print fabrics and contemporary urban streetwear. Orange Culture is more than a clothing line, it is a “movement” for a creative class of men that are “self-aware, expressive, explorative and art-loving nomads”.

MaXhosa by Laduma // Laduma Ngxokolo from South Africa

MaXhosa by Laduma is a South African knitwear brand founded in 2010 by Laduma Ngxokolo. The South African Xhosa manhood initiation ritual practiced by amakrwala was behind the launch of the brand as Laduma sought to create Xhosa-inspired modern knitwear that would be suitable for this tradition. Since, the Xhosa aesthetic has come to be part of the DNA of the knitwear brand as Laduma has explored and reinterpreted traditional Xhosa beadwork, patterns, symbolism and colours to inspire his modern knitwear line. Through his work, Laduma is an agent of change, shifting and evolving with the changing times and further engaging in the dialogue that keeps pushing traditional culture toward the future.

PROJECTO MENTAL // Tekasala Ma’at Nzinga & Shunnoz Fiel from Angola

Projecto Mental is an Angolan fashion brand, founded in 2004 by creative duo Shunnoz Fiel & Tekasala Ma’at Nzinga, which fuses fashion and art. The brand was created in the aftermath of the civil war as a platform to help reshape Angola’s cultural identity, after the country was ravaged by decades of civil war. Suits with an experimental twist are the signature item of the Projecto Mental brand. Projecto Mental takes an avant-garde approach to tailoring as the designers re-imagine and re-invent the traditional suit for men and women. Strong block colours combined with prints & patterns bring boldness to each design.

DENT DE MAN // Alexis Temomanin from Ivory Coast & UK

Dent de Man is a menswear brand created in 2012 by British-Ivorian designer, Alexis Temomanin. Dent de Man’s approach to luxury style is defined by a mix of classic tailoring with colourful patterned fabric. The Dent de Man lifestyle is defined by freedom, quality and “esthétisme”, empowering individuals to dress for themselves. Self-expression is core to Dent de Man’s philosophy. The brand prides itself on the use of vintage fabrics and celebration of ancient printing techniques, Dent de Man adapts decadent and bold Java prints forming unique garments that allow individuals to own distinctive and irreplaceable pieces. All Dent de Man fabric is carefully sourced and possesses its own story and meaning.

At Pitti Uomo 88:

The brand’s first runway show featuring men’s fashion in Italy since Jeremy Scott took over as creative director. Moschino, the Menswear Guest Designer at Pitti Immagine Uomo 88 , held an exclusive event for Pitti, in Palazzo Corsini al Parione, Florence, featuring the S/S 2016 collection for men.

In Jeremy Scott’s collections, we see the humor, the irreverence, the tendency to explode myths, and the manipulation of pop iconography – all that we knew to be part of Franco Moschino’s spirit and designs. There is also lots of originality in his work, in the way he combines fabrics and materials – especially the finest types, because his fashions are luxurious

 

 

Emilio Pucci presents “The Pilot Episode” in Florence during Pitti Immagine Uomo 88. Massimo Giorgetti, Emilio Pucci’s new Creative Director, begins his story with a blank canvas. Florence is the setting for his Pilot Episode which, as with a TV series, hints at the episodes to follow. This first collection embodies a new vision that will take shape in September’s SS 2016 fashion show in Milan.

Pucci as interpreted by Massimo opens the doors of the Palazzo: the iconic rooftop is now linked to the street. The mood is energetic, the speed accelerated, the result is precise. Another beginning, right where it all started, with a new spirit and a founding perspective: timelessly modern, inclusively   and immediate.

Archive prints bring another Emilio to the fore: the painterly composer. New motifs add a dash of comic strip pop art irony as with the print “Tourists in Florence” which is also interpreted on embroideries. The new logo is a rhythmic pattern, intertwined with the Florentine lily.

The scarf turns into a dress with a simple gesture, or creates a recurring theme in the form of a knot, like a scarf tied at the neck. The shirt is pivotal, as an item either to respect or deconstruct. Masculine loafers and flat sandals with feathers run throughout. The Pucci colors are reshuffled and remixed.

 

For Casamadre the rendezvous is set in the morning at the Dogana, Via Valfonda, as special guests of Pitti Uomo 83, the Casamadre duo is back in Florence for the debut of their first-ever clothing collection after winning the Who’s on next in 2013.

“Our SS 2016 runway show represents an arrival as well as the beginning of a new adventure.  And we are honored to be starting from Pitti Uomo where our journey began. This is our first complete collection: the idea of the Casamadre man and woman is finally taking shape”, say David Parisi and Alessia Crea.  “We will tell a new story through contaminations that are rich in identity, dwelling on the concept of the moment before the beginning and on the possibilities”.

At Pitti Uomo 88:

Arthur Arbesser’s creative talent and evocative artistic aesthetic in women’s wear was the stars of a runway-show at the Stazione Leopolda. Pitti Italics,isthe programme through which the Pitti Discovery Foundation promotes and supports the new generations of the most interesting fashion designers who design and produce in Italy

“Florence is a city rich in beauty and it’s highly inspiring”, says Arthur Arbesser. “For a creative mind it’s like a Garden of Eden, the ideal place for continuing along the path I chose – to present my work as a dialogue between fashion, art and architecture. I am truly honored and thrilled about this opportunity offered by Pitti Immagine”.

Being a designer is like being a writer. It is not just a matter of having the indispensable creative ability and inherent artistic skills – it is also fundamental that you have something to say. But not always that lucidity and clarity that are fundamental in this profession. It is difficult to find someone like Arthur Arbesser, able to combine a solid desire, ideas and objectives with continually evolving creativity, discipline and flair, style and formality. His work is passion and patience and he likes to underline this fact.