Following the success of the of the the
award ceremony hosted by e3 returns to the denim capital of Europe once
more for round two. Bigger than ever before, the 2015 Global Denim Awards
sees eight up and coming designers team up with eight of the best denim mills in
the world to create a capsule collection that bring together innovation,
sustainability, and
craftsmanship.
The participating mills and designers were selected by international denim
boutique trade fair , in cooperation with . The denim mills have either chosen to work with a designer
who they believe fits their identity as a company or were looking for
someone to bring in a fresh perspective. The winning designer, who will be
handpicked by a curated jury which includes the ‘Godfather of Denim’ and
founder of Diesel, Adriano Goldschmied, will receive a cash prize of 10,000
euros as well as the chance to show their collection at the upcoming
Kingpins editions around the world. The denim mill to show the most
innovation fabric will be awarded with an honourable mention. FashionUnited
had a sneak peek of the mills and designers collection during the press
preview on Tuesday night and lists this year’s candidates here.
“We wanted to make something over the top, that was extreme and fun, but
also represented us as designers,” said Tung Trinh, half of the design duo
behind TRINHBECX. Together with Advanced Denim, China’s oldest denim mill,
they set out to create a futuristic, sci-fi, denim collection. Inspired by
Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ Japanese sci-fi
flicks and Andreas Gursky surreal landscape photographs, the resulting
collection consists of bright, fun sci-fi suits and dresses, knee high
platform boots and accessories, all with a touch of humour. “We made this
bag to go with a dress, but really it’s completely useless because you
can’t put anything in it. But it’s made for leftover materials, for example
we took the handle for an old milk bucket,” added Tim Becx, the other half
of the label.
Atlantic Mills is a family owned company based in Thailand, which
specialises in trading textiles from Japan and Italy. Together with Michael
Seiter, they created a womenswear denim collection which celebrates the
power of women. “I am a menswear designer and I saw this as one of my last
chances to create womenswear, so I just went for it,” explains Seiter.
Looking at iconic female superheroes such as Superwoman and traditional
Thai dress, the duo was inspired to create a new flexible denim knit, which
was as soft as butter and would hug the female form in all the right
places. Amy Leverton, denim trend forecaster and fellow member of the jury,
joked that Michael design his first womenswear collection so he could dress
his models in skintight denim. “It’s true,” said Seiter with a smile, “I
just wanted to see them all in super tight denim.”
Berto was founded in 1887, in Bovolenta, Italy and carries many historical
links to its surroundings and home country. Similarly, Studiopretzel, which
was founded by former photographer Emiliano Laszlo, looks to his roots for
inspiration as well as abroad to the Far East. For their collection, Laszlo
worked with 100 percent denim, using recycled wool to create custom blended
fabrics for his angular designs. “I am very inspired by Japanese culture
and style,” said Laszlo, adding that nearly everyone of his collections had
some sort of kimono or obi
–
wrap in it. “But I also wanted to create something which women could wear
as well, such as this denim shirt, which can also be worn as a dress.”
Calik Denim, part of Calik holding, is an integrated yarn and weaving
factory that was established in 1987, in Malatya. Whilst attending Istanbul
Fashion Week last year, they spotted up and coming designer Gülçin Çengel
who was presenting her collection for the first time. It was then and there
that the denim mill knew they wanted to work with her for Global Denim
Awards. “It was an easy choice for us and she was a pleasure to work with,”
said Pinar Demirel Bula, senior marketing communications executive. “Her
design aesthetics really appealed to us as well as her approach to
sustainability.” The resulting collection featured distressed and
deconstructed denim dresses, fitted pencil skirts and knitted bomber
jackets with Çengel signature leather straps and marbled denim fabric for
which the duo developed a new, more sustainable technique for.
The 77 year old vertically integrated Candiani Denim mill is not only
Europe’s largest denim mill, but also the world’s most sustainable denim
mill. Together with Andrea Diletto, the founder of bespoke label Sartoria
Diletto, the team set out to create a collection that brings together the
best of tailoring, craftsmanship, denim and sustainability. As Diletto had
never worked with denim before, he experiment with numerous fibres and
treatments to create new, unique fabrics. “If we had not been working with
him, then we would have never developed these new fabrics, such as the
strip women’s waistcoat which is made from 100 percent recycled fibres”
said Simon Giuliani, marketing manager at Candiani. The resulting
collection consisted of 2 men’s outfits and 3 women’s outfits, as Diletto
aimed to invert the standard by dressing women in sharply tailored suits
and the men in more casual workwear.
“It was my first time working with denim, but I absolutely loved it,” said
Alexandra Frida, the designer behind the Amsterdam-based ready to wear
label. Together with the 42 year old vertically integrated denim mill, ITV
Denim, Frida aimed to create a collection which was true to her own design
aesthetics and continue her mission of empowering women and giving them
wings through her iconic feather piece. “I reworked my feather print to
create something new, for the collection as I wanted to use denim in a more
playful and feminine way,” said Frida. Unlike many of the other
collections, Frida’s collection consists of bright colors, recycled yarns
and leather applicants on denim dresses, skirts and bomber jackets. “As
soon as I saw the leftover denim yarns, I knew I had to use them in my
collection,” explains Frida. “And even though this skirt has a fault on the
inside, where the feather print was misaligned, I still wanted to use in my
collection because I wanted to tell its story and make sure nothing went to
waste.”
“We wanted to use a denim in a way that also showed the workers side of the
story,” explained Tessa de Boer, half the design team behind Arnhem based
fashion house Maison the Faux. Together with Prosperity Textile, an
international textile company based in Shaoguan, China, which works with
many fast-fashion companies, the duo went in search of leftover fabrics and
materials for its collections. “For example this skirt, which is made from
a faulty fabric that was going to be thrown away even though its still
beautiful, was made by somebody. So many people today seem to forget that
all the clothing they buy is touched by many different hands, and with our
collection we wanted to remind people where their clothes come from,” added
de Boer. However, true to the fashion house general aesthetics, the unisex
collection contains exaggerated proportions, uneven edges and ‘second skin’
layers which all aim to poke at an industry which normally takes itself a
little too seriously.
Recent graduate from the Amsterdam Jean School, John-Randy Anthony only heard
he would be participating in the global denim award 6 weeks ago. “I’ve lost
16 kilos from all the stress since I came back from Spain but it’s been
worth it,” he said with a laugh. Together with Spanish textile company,
Tejidos Royo, Anthony created a masculine collection around the concept of
workwear. “I have always been a fan of workwear, but I wanted to show it
under a new light,” explained Anthony. The finished collection contains a
modern day miner suit, construction suit and mail man outfit, complete with
waterproof denim umbrella. “I thought it would be nice to have an useful
accessory for the mailman, something which would help keep him dry on his
rounds.”
It is clear that selecting a winning designer this year will be no easy
task as the selection of designers is so diverse and international. Menno
van Meurs, jury member and co founder of iconic denim retailer Tenue de
Nimes, admitted to FashionUnited that the jury did indeed have a hard time
narrowing down their selection for the awards. “Everyone here just has
their own niche and speciality that they really focused on that it was hard
to find someone who ticked all the boxes,” said van Meurs. “But
Goldschmied, who really is the godfather of denim, was the one who brought
us the jury all together and said ‘right let’s start narrowing down our
choice.’”
“To be honest I was in awe to have been selected alongside with him and
Pierre Morisset (head designer at G-Star Raw), who are two of the most
prominent figures in the denim industry. I to keep reminding myself not to
just stand there with my mouth open, nodding and listening to them speak,”
he added with a laugh. “But there are some strong candidates and
collections here which really reflect the synergy between the denim mill
and des
igner.”
The winner of the Global Denim Awards 2015 is set to be revealed on
Thursday, 29th October at the Westergasfabriek, in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.
Photo Credit: Simon Trel