ITS Contest 2022
The Ark of Creativity
ITS Contest is an international award for emerging designers set up in Trieste in 2002, open for all young fashion, accessories and jewellery designers who believe in their ideas despite everything.
It navigates the global creative currents to discover and promote talent, offering career opportunities and preserving creativity for future generations. It logs changes and innovations tracing the evolution of contemporary fashion, building a picture of how the surrounding environment profoundly influences today’s young designers, enabling them to anticipate and predict future scenarios.
A wide number of ITS finalists went on to re-shape the fashion industry. Former finalists like Demna Gvasalia (Creative Director at Balenciaga), Matthieu Blazy (Creative Director at Bottega Veneta), Alithia Spuri-Zampetti (Associate Head of Design Alexander McQueen) and Nicolas di Felice (Creative Director at Maison Courrèges) are among the over 630 talents revealed by ITS that today work in some of the most coveted positions in the fashion world. We are in awe of what they have accomplished and very proud to present you with the ITS Contest 2022 generation.
Sailing the wave
For twenty years we sailed in search of ideas that describe you. Sailing through different lives, boundless imaginations, on the crests of your stories. With the helm held tightly in our hands, we discovered creative and emotional treasures.
We saw footprints and traced hundreds of thousands of tracks, but we trusted the compass that led us to each of you. We have shared journeys and experiences, weathered storms, followed the flow and the uncontrollable passage of time, which we have sailed with consciousness and understanding.
We plunged into your minds, sometimes surrounded by the dense silence of messages. Never stop gliding on this liquid path of life: we will guard your first creatures, as in a book of myths. The ark that protects and welcomes will always blow in the wind of freedom to embrace other fellow travellers.
From our hometown Trieste we will continue to explore the world. Certain that new treasures enclosed in precious coffers will let us keep surprising the world.
Raise the sails.
BARBARA FRANCHIN
ITS Founder and Director
The winners
Announcing the ITS Contest 2022 Winners! A generation of talents developing touching narratives, dreaming of improving the world, and celebrating the analog dimension of the printed book as a guardian of knowledge. One of their strongest trends were nostalgic memories of family, above all of their grandparents in this post-covid era, together with gender fluidity which has nothing to hide anymore. Not even the designers themselves, frequently involved in modeling their own work.
Charlie Constantinou
Born 25th June 1998, British
Fashion designer
Edward Mendoza
Born 23rd December 1992, British
Fashion designer
The finalists
Twenty years of ITS, the return of our traditional physical format on 9-10 September after two covid-struck years, and the preview of ITS Arcademy with the anticipation of our First Exhibition curated by Olivier Saillard. The 20th generation of talents are up for the experience of a lifetime, and we can’t wait to finally meet them in person here in Trieste, Italy.
Fashion
Special projects
ITS Sportswear Award powered by Lotto Sport
€3,000, €2,000 and €1,000 awarded by Lotto Sport to three winners challenged with a sneakers project.
ITS Artwork Award powered by Swatch Art Peace Hotel
€10,000 assigned by Swatch Art Peace Hotel, upon selection among the ITS Contest participants.
Applicants were considered for the following Awards:
ITS Arcademy Award
€15,000 and a 6-month mentorship by PITTI Immagine Tutoring & Consulting Direction to the most creative, socially aware and innovative finalist project.
ITS Media Award
€8,000 awarded by the ITS Contest 2022 Media Jury to the fashion, accessories or jewellery finalist showing the strongest ability to transmit their innovative vision in a socially meaningful way.
ITS Video Presentation Award
€3,000 awarded by ITS to the best fashion film, selected among all ITS Contest applications.
ITS Digital fashion Award
€3,000 awarded by ITS to the best digital fashion project selected among all ITS Contest applications.
OTB Award
€10,000 assigned by OTB to a fashion, accessories or jewellery finalist.
ITS Artwork Award powered by Swatch Art Peace Hotel
€10,000 assigned by Swatch Art Peace Hotel, upon selection among the ITS Contest participants.
ITS Sportswear Award powered by Lotto Sport
€3,000, €2,000 and €1,000 awarded by Lotto Sport to three winners challenged with a sneakers project.
ITS Special Mention powered by Luxottica
€3,000 awarded by Luxottica, selected among all ITS Contest 2022 applications.
ITS Special Mention powered by Vogue Italia
the ITS Special Mention powered by Vogue Italia will be assigned to a fashion, accessories or jewelry finalist. The winner’s collection will be featured on the Vogue.it website.
ITS Responsible Creativity Award powered by CNMI
€5,000 awarded by CNMI – Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and selected from all ITS Contest entries.
ITS Footwear Award powered by Fondazione Ferragamo
€5,000 & the opportunity of an internship in the company’s creative dept., awarded by Fondazione Ferragamo to one of the footwear entries for ITS Contest.
Contacts
For contest related enquiries
tel +39 040 300589 + choose schools & contestants from the switchboard
For all other enquiries
tel +39 040 300589