The new generations of designers never cease to surprise us and this year’s selection – resulting from weeks of deep diving into 800+ projects from over 80 countries and days spent with the ITS 2019 Jury narrowing it down to the actual finalists – is no exception.
“A closer look at the projects – we will be releasing an extensive trends report, stay tuned – highlights common traits among young creatives spread all over the planet. They truly believe in a world with no borders, fluid and inclusive, distancing itself more and more from judgements and preconceived opinions. Male and female declinations are totally forgotten, human beings are now gender fluid. This is a vision that indeed surprises, considering the official version of a society that wants us divided, intolerant, elitist and non-inclusive. This doesn’t mean that the new ITS generation has no identity, on the contrary: identity awareness opens to diversity as an enriching factor and mix & match stands as the perfect metaphor for infinite possibilities, giving equal importance to all elements. Sustainability is the starting point for most of the creative declinations we’ve seen. It had already become relevant in 2016, with a strong focus on workers’ conditions (remembering the Rana Plaza tragedy). Today the approach – natural materials & treatments, upcycling, use of waste and discarded plastic – positively surprised us for its clarity of vision. It leaves us with hope for a journey that has just begun in the fashion industry, the world’s 2nd most polluting sector.“
Barbara Franchin – ITS Founder & Director
The ITS 2019 Sincerely True Finalists are ready to join the cosmopolitan ITS Family for the Finals on July 12th, 2019 in Trieste, Italy. They come from over 15 nations and once again they represent a global map of the strongest young creativity: Australia, Belgium, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Peru, South Korea, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Taiwan and Thailand:
THE FASHION FINALISTS
Louis Appelmans – Belgian Daoyuan Ding – Chinese Annaliese Griffith-Jones – Australian Moon Hussain – British Cecilia Del Carmen Juarez Balta – Peruvian Jimin Kim – South Korean Rafael Kouto – Swiss Shie Lyu – Chinese Yukika Saito – Japanese 
Anni Salonen – Finnish Hana Yagi – Japanese
THE JEWELLERY & ACCESSORIES FINALISTS
Fabia Brüning – German Irina Galon – Israeli Corrina Goutos – American Joanne Guiraud – Swiss Skye Gwillim – British Yukako Hihara – Japanese Hazuki Katagai – Japanese Asumi Maeda – Japanese Xiaotu Tang – Chinese Bingqing Yi – Chinese Yunqi Zhang – Chinese
THE ITS FASHION@WORK BY ILLY AWARD FINALISTS
The following designers will be challenged with a radical re-design of the illycaffè coffee aprons:
Jiaen Cai – Chinese Daoyuan Ding – Chinese Annaliese Griffith-Jones – Australian David Huang – Taiwanese Ping-Chieh Hsieh – Taiwanese & Wimonwan Wichaikhamjorn – Thai Moon Hussain – British Rafael Kouto – Swiss Shie Lyu – Chinese Anni Salonen – Finnish Kelly Toode – Estonian
THE LOTTO SPORT AWARD FINALISTS
The following 3 designers will be required to develop a complete outfit inspired by the world of tennis and revisiting an iconic Lotto sneaker:
Jimin Kim – South Korean Rafael Kouto – Swiss Anni Salonen – Finnish
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