FASH 2006 Local – Global / 29. January 2006

Bianca Koczan


1st Prize
European Fashion Award FASH 2006

Clothing Factory

“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 Statement
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.
Member of the Jury: Joachim Schirrmacher, Creative Consultant, Berlin
Education Diplom 2005
Burg Giebichenstein – Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle / University of Art and Design Halle
Prof. Thomas Greis, Prof. Joachim Schielicke

Contact biancakoczan@vverk.de
www.vverk.de