Polimoda Fashion Show 2017
Shania Matthews wins the title of Best Collection 2017
An international jury awards three emerging designers
22 year old British student Shania Matthews has won the award for Best Collection for 2017, at the conclusion of the spectacular graduate fashion show, Tell Me About you. This event took place yesterday at Polimoda’s headquarters, Villa Favard, and on the occasion of the 92nd edition of Pitti Immagine Uomo. Polimoda presented to a public of over 500 guests, which included fashion insiders, journalists, company representatives and of course Polimoda People, the work of 19 young design talents who have now finished the four years of their undergraduate courses in Fashion Design.
Shania’s womenswear collection Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard convinced the esteemed jury, which included Christiane Arp, Diane Pernet and David Fischer, to award her with this prestigious award. Shania’s work reflected the childhood of her mother, which in Ireland in the 60s and 70s, wasn’t simple. Despite this, the whimsical photos of her in flower fields are dotted around their family home. It was a horrible moment in British and Irish history, which made Shania ponder on this incongruous imagery; on how colour can transform things. Broken pieces of china were put back together like a jigsaw on cheerful knitwear, and old pieces of tapestry were spontaneously used with applique and embroidery, as innocent offcuts of a politically charged past.
Honourable mentions were also awarded to two students, Federico Cina from Italy, and Max Anish Gowriah from Mauritius. Federico presented his menswear collection Vacuum, which looked at the slim bodies of the Chav generation wearing leather garments with cuts and volumes exasperating their anatomy, in a suffocating vacuum effect. They are fragile and strong, and their masculinity is never questioned, yet their lonely bones press against the fabric. White skin shapes the edges with powder pastels in lilac and blue, leaving a message of hope, tenderness, and perhaps revenge.
To understand if it was even possible to create a collection with effectively no money, Max used only found textiles from offcuts, extras from other students’ work and test fabrics seldom used in nal garments to create his dramatic silhouettes and 3D forms. With the liberty of love in the background, garments are made with free experimentation, spontaneous draping and the exploration of form with jersey in coincidental colours. Max indeed proved that – with love – anything is possible!
The Jury
In the prestigious jury for 2017 were: Christiane Arp (Editor-in chief, Vogue Germany), Simone Cipriani (Head and Founder, Ethical Fashion Initiative), Fabrizio Fabbro (Senior Vice President of Creative Operations, Burberry), David Fischer (Founder and CEO, Highsnobiety), Simonetta Gianfelici (Fashion Consultant and Talent Scout), Sara Kozlowski (Director of Education & Professional Development, CFDA), Hirofumi Kurino (Co-Founder & Senior Adviser for Creative Direction, United Arrows), Linda Loppa (Advisor for Strategy and Vision, Polimoda), Michel Maffesoli (Sociologist and Emeritus Professor, La Sorbonne), Sara Maino (Senior Editor, Vogue Italia and Head of Vogue Talents), Kanya Miki (Associate Professor of the Faculty of Fashion Science, Bunka Fashion College), Diane Pernet (Founder, ASVOFF), Gioconda Rafanelli and August Kaciuruba (Photographers and Founders, Gioconda & August), Etienne Russo (Founder, Villa Eugénie), Francois Schweitzer (General Manager and Head of Business Development, Chalhoub Group Retail), Akiko Shinoda (Director of International Affairs, Japanese Fashion Week), Riccardo Vannetti (Tutorship Director, Pitti Immagine) and Danilo Venturi (Director, Polimoda).
The event
Villa Favard, the opulent 19th-century building located along the Arno river in the heart of Florence and headquarters of Polimoda, hosted the best menswear and womenswear collections by final year students of the undergraduate course in Fashion Design in a completely new style. The Villa was transformed with light and shade, video projections and the sound design of Kim Ann Foxman, the eclectic electronic music artist, who also became a style icon after the success of the collective Hercules and Love Affair.
The students Claudia Genco, Yunjin Cho, Sofia Mollberg, Shania Matthews, Federico Cina, Xi Luo, Fabio Bigondi, Elizaveta Burtseva, Ilaria Tosti, Daisy Ramer, Matteo Bruschi, Margherita Banti, Mirco Arena, Olga Vasyukova, Maximiliano Ruelas, Miranda Hochkoeppler, Lai Shu Lin, Max Anish Gowriah, Ning Yang and Peirong Jiang each presented a collection of 8 outfits. As a culmination of their matured sense of creativity, this was their final transition from students to designers, and their first entry into the fashion world.
Tell Me About You is what links these 20 students’ work. It explains their strong collective desire to express their identity unconnected to gender stereotypes, geographic origin, or societal belonging. As fashion is a manifestation of the ego, their stories are personal, inevitably relate to each other, and reveal themselves as each collection emerges on the runway.
This event was supported by: Vogue Talents, Not Just A Label, Olfattorio and CLASS Hair Salon Academy Style.
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