We’re in our darkest hour. What each and every one of us was forced to face in recent months wasn’t even imaginable. Today more than ever, we feel Here We Belong: awkwardly enough we came up once again with a forward-thinking concept, even more so today that our sense of belonging to places and cultures of origin, to communities, but above all to humanity, has such a profound meaning.
The ITS community demonstrates commitment, resilience and belonging. The creativity that motivates and animates it is an important key to understanding what the future holds. Physical distance hurts, but it has fired us up with a desire to erase it. We met virtually with the jury responsible for this year’s finalists selection (after close examination of the 600+ portfolios from over 60 nations) with the same enthusiasm as ever, heightened by the awareness that directing, giving space and supporting the new generations of creative talents will have an even greater value in the post-pandemic period.
All this, that for us represents continuity and security, today acquires a new value and meaning. The collaboration and support from the territory and the partners, as well as the extraordinary resilience shown by the ITS team and by all the talents who decided to take part in the 2020 edition, acquire today a greater meaning and impact on our project and on each one of us. Every portfolio received is a like a germ of resilience, the will to regenerate, the hope for a different future to be conceived and created together.
Barbara Franchin
ITS Founder & Director
This year’s trends range from mix & match – with the creative and disruptive excess typical of a young creative generation expressing itself, where gender has no limits and boundaries, and fluidity seems to be the established non-rule – to the purest essentiality and cleanliness of lines in which a few details stand out and burst out. It is almost as if an internal sparkle was taking over an external one, and being mattered more than appearing.
Yet sustainability in all its forms – environmental, social, human, in its deeper sense – is ever-present and widespread, like a red line implied across all the trends and all the choices. It unravels along various paths – up-cycling, re-cycling, zero-waste, natural colors and dyeing, organic textiles – like a recurring element: the research and the reuse of objects and materials that young creative talents have sourced in their surroundings or have looked for, tell a story that come to the fore again through this regenerating process, with new, vibrant, unique meanings and interpretations.
The theme of sustainability, embraced for the first time by ITS in 2016, is now returning with an increasingly central role and relevance: it is now a true, inescapable necessity, as the crisis we are now facing, unmistakably finds its deepest origin in the sense of omnipotence and domination, alongside the lack of respect, of Man towards Nature. Four years on, what does Sustainability mean for the young ITS creatives? How has its perception and concrete application evolved for the young generations of fashion and design? We may observe this by comparing the 2016 report. While back then, the key references were those brands more strongly committed to social and environmental issues, but the line separating their statements and their true actions was blurred – in 2020 sustainability is an individual and collective civic deed, for each one does their part with their daily commitment. This is the era of sustainability 2.0, in which the actors are the single individuals, and one’s concrete, measurable commitment is the only thing that truly counts: a deeper awareness about the urgency of such commitment entails, as a consequence, also a stricter judgment towards those who honor it more honestly.
The ITS 2020 Finalists will be joining the ITS Family for the Finals on October 23, 2020. They represent 16 different nationalities tracing this year’s map of global creativity: China, Israel, United Kingdom, Portugal, Estonia, Canada, Austria, Thailand, Ireland, South Korea, Japan, France, Greece, Ecuador, Germany, Kenya.
THE FASHION FINALISTS
11 projects from 6 countries.
Aharon Israel Genish – Israeli Andrew Bell – Irish Cameron Williams – British Jimin Lee – South Korean Kin Yan Lam – Chinese Noa Baruch – Israeli Olivia Rubens – Canadian Rosie Baird – British Sara Michal Workeneh – Israeli Syna Chen – Chinese Tara Babylon – British
THE ACCESSORIES & JEWELLERY FINALISTS
12 projects from 10 countries.
Bo Zhang – Chinese Clara Chu – Portuguese Eva Verwicht – French Felipe Fiallo – Ecuadorean Jing Han – Chinese Jittrakarn Bunterngpiboon – Thai Johanna Parv – Estonian Maria Bika – Greek Ninja D. Evangelista – Austrian Rebecca Marsden – Irish Rei Sato & Jumi Tanabe – Japanese Yunfei Ma – Chinese
THE ITS FASHION@WORK BY ILLY FINALISTS
11 finalists from 7 countries will develop a radical, sustainable re-design of the illycaffè coffee aprons.
Anyango Mpinga – Kenyan Cameron Williams – British Johanna Parv – Estonian Keewon Shin – South Korean Kin Yan Lam – Chinese Rebar Aziz – German Rosie Baird – British 
Shiori Mizuochi & Hiroki Okamoto – Japanese Tara Babylon – British Yuhan Xu – Chinese
THE ITS ARTWORK BY SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL FINALISTS
8 finalists from 5 countries will be challenged with a purely artistic brief by Swatch.
Aharon Israel Genish – Israeli Byung Yoon Lee – South Korean Clara Chu – Portuguese Liuxu Luo – Chinese Natsumi Osawa – Japanese Rei Sato & Jumi Tanabe – Japanese
THE LOTTO SPORT FINALISTS
3 finalists from 3 countries will create an outfit inspired by Lotto’s heritage and the world of tennis.