“Clothing Factory”
Graduated in 2005
Burg Giebichenstein – College for Art and Design, Halle – Fashion Design
Prize: 3,000 euros, six-month paid internship at René Lezard
bianca.koczan@gmx.de 
www.burg-halle.de

“Clothing Factory” deals with the topic of men in blue as the uniform of the socialist worker milieu. A business model with responsible production in East Germany, interdisciplinary work structures, and a three-part collection for men and women were designed. The authentic ready-to-wear clothing is divided into “Gray” (subtle basics with intellectual character, which do justice to the requirements of profitable production and leave room for individual changes), “Print” as fanciful and eye-catching counterpoint as well as a bag and bandana collection. This is a clothing rooted in the local culture and shaped by a comprehensive concept, which reflects on what we experience as a newspaper and examines the system of fashion. An ironic manifesto.

Jury Reasons
Bianca Koczan won first prize by a wide margin. Her Master’s thesis “Clothing Factory” fulfills the objectives of the contest in an ideal way.
The starting point “work”, one of the most pressing problems of our time, was selected cleverly and strategically. The collection divided into three parts is already a very appealing idea.. The seeming simplicity of work clothes as a type has been taken apart intelligently and ironically. As a result, she has created a very varied but stringent collection, which is rich in references. She not only masters the vocabulary of fashion impressively, but only speaks it with a new accent. Technique and design are implemented with a great deal of professionalism and perfection.
Her interdisciplinary work with designers for textiles, accessories, graphics and photographs, something rarely seem in this extent, without relinquishing responsibility for the result is also praiseworthy. 


Her work is also extraordinary, because the structural changes in fashion are analyzed and discussed cleverly in the concept of newspaper documentation. The concept is far-reaching, conclusive, stimulating and exciting and demonstrates the rare but urgently required double-gift of visual and verbal force of expression.
Ms. Koczan always maintains the necessary distrust of her own perception and interpretation in her search for subjective truth.
She fights with her work against the widespread longing for security in that she compares the need for continuity, honesty and tradition with a powerful identity of that which is genuine, original and transparent. From this only seemingly naïve longing for one roots, the future grows for a very battered and often hysterical and elitist fashion industry
Consistently with the above, Ms. Koczan designed a business model for the future, which takes production, communication and distribution into consideration.
This complex work was created, because she not only wanted to reach people, but also to get them to act. She consciously follows Joseph Beuys in that she wants to “show people something, with which they can identify.” Ms. Koczan does not misunderstand design as superficial change as is so often the case, but instead as an expression of ethics and strategy. This pronounced and legitimate attitude shapes the complex coding of the products. Consequently, Ms. Koczan is in the tradition of the modern, in which design is not seen as solely an aesthetic expression, but always as a means of social, economic and ecological change too. With that, she demonstrate an intricate and very modern understanding of fashion.

All of this is possible, because Ms. Koczan works self-assuredly and rooted to her native soil instead of striving for vain self-expression. This work is practical and innovative, interdisciplinary, extremely varied and powerful on a high international level in precisely the way, in which promising works are defined today. In all of this, Ms. Koczan is not set on the style shown in this work, but instead she demonstrates the potential of working out new paths again and again.

Jury member Joachim Schirrmacher, Journalist and Design-Manager

“The Search for Security”
Graduated in 2005
Berlin Art University
Prize: 1,500 euros
lenieinhoff@gmx.de
www.udk-berlin.de

The baby boom in the fashionable East Berlin district “Prenzlauer Berg” is the starting point for this work, which is dedicated to the security that people search for in their families in times of economic and politic uncertainty. This is a reaction, which can be compared to the withdrawal into the family in the Biedermeier era. The ladies’ and men’s collection deals with the atmosphere of this longing. Skin-tight clothes communicate the feeling of a protective cover to the wearer. Oversized clothes made of soft and warm materials provide the possibility to hide in the clothing pieces. Decorative elements create a link to Biedermeier.

Jury Reasons
The non-imposing selection of topics is attractive thanks to its relevance to the present and it is serenely modern. The completely minimalized personal style communicates the selected topic with a warm, natural look. The collection is structured professionally. A world has been created, which has the potential to be expanded into a brand without drifting into clichés such as “wellness”.
The extremely perfect and well-reasoned concept as well as the collection, which is worked out just as well, polarized the jury. The design, which is unusually mature for a Master’s thesis, conflicted with the desire for more design independence.

Jury member Marcel Herrig, Unicut Design Office/IDEAS

“Watzmann – Homerum”
Graduated in 2005
Burg Giebichenstein – College for Art and Design, Halle – Fashion Design
Prize: 1,500 euros
c.ohlendorf@gmx.de
www.burg-halle.de

The threatening aspect of the colorful gay and dark traditional Black Forest costumes has been transferred into a 20-piece collection for young, urbane men. The essential style characteristics are transformed local motifs in eye-catching ink and silkscreen prints. As a result, the costume can be seen worn in town again and is given fresh life. The name “Watzmann” stands for the never-ending longing for idealized nature and lost identity. Instead of searching for identity in brands, the experimental work encourages us to go back to our roots.

Jury Reasons
The selected topic, urban sports and the Black Forest, was implemented in a refreshing and harmonious way. The fits are excellent, and the motifs of one’s home town are not random, but instead interpreted cleverly for the target group. It is one of the rare works to implement a topic playfully and maintain the professional focus of the strict concept at the same time.

Jury member Ulrike Proß, Marketing The North Face

“Pioneering Spirit”
Argau College, Switzerland, for Industrial Design and Media Art
Prize: 1,000 euros, six-month paid internship at Schöffel
dgafner@gmx.ch
www.fhnw.ch

Alpine pioneers opened the way into the Swiss world of mountains in the 18th century. The textile patterns, materials, cuts and details of the equipment and clothes of that era were investigated and researched comprehensively. A new type of functional clothing was created for men and women via the combination of these old and in part forgotten textiles and cuts with current materials and modern manufacturing methods. The refined, functional concept collection also represents pioneering work, because it was designed by two industrial designers and one media designer.

Jury Reasons
The students were very daring. Inspired by their initial experiences in the fashion sector during a guest semester, two students of industrial designs and one of media design had the courage to compete against 109 works of fashion designers. As a result, they did justice twice-over to the title of their work, “Pioneering Spirit”.
They won with their experimental but suitable concept-collection, because they shifted existing borders between tradition and future as well as between functional clothing and fashion with curiosity, precise perception and a high degree of design independence.
An extremely consistent work has been created from documentation to collection. The complexity of the topic, research and treatment are excellent. All of this was created with a great deal of commitment in addition to ongoing studies at the college.

Jury member Ingrid Obhof, Co.X Fashion Network

The high degree of commitment of the students and the convincing concept were honored by Schoeller Textil AG with free material and a financial subsidy for putting the models into practice.
www.schoeller-textiles.com

Special Award Fashion Branding
The tasks of fashion designers have changed completely since the foundation was founded in 1977. In addition to the design of products that does justice to target groups, the shaping of identities has been added. Because there is no special training for this in colleges, the foundation would like to point the way for this and create consciousness for brands and brand identities. Therefore, it is awarding a Special Award Fashion Branding in collaboration with Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux. The world’s leading brand consulting company Interbrand belongs to Omnicom, one of the largest communication groups of the world.

Briefing
The Special Award Fashion Branding will be awarded for concise brand worlds, which are based on values. Therefore, the task is to develop a branding concept for a fashion label. The submitted works must be in relation to a competition entry on the topic “local – global”. The brand concept should be formulated and presented both conceptually and visually in harmony with the product. Consequently, interdisciplinary projects are recommended such as between fashion and business communication or fashion and communication design.

Although fashion creates identity and identity is considered the competitive strategy of the future, there has been surprisingly little research given to how fashion designers can shape brand identities strategically, let alone solidly based knowledge about this. One of the reasons is certainly that reconciling the issues is complicated. It is not only a question of building a bridge between the continual changes in fashion and the necessary continuity of brands, but also the duality of fashion itself between attempts to fit in and the need to be different, individualism and membership in a group.

1st Part: Analysis
The analysis should be elaborated in connection with a project on the topic “local – global”.

2nd Part: Concept
Elaboration of a brand personality on the basis of a model of brand personality common in publications. The developed concept should be well thought out strategically and displayed in a well-grounded manner.

• Positioning concept of the new brand
• Positioning of the brand in the existing competitive environment

3rd Part: Design
The brand personality should be presented visually in the sense of a “brand” experience in a sub-sector and in harmony with the product.
In addition to display of the target group, the following aspects should be visualized:

• Brand world/experience (e.g., logo, typography, colors, materials, claim)
• Picture concept (fashion photography, tonality, impression)
• Shop layout
• Communication (advertising concept)

The results must be presented as a “mood board”.

Please click here to download the complete information as pdf.