Change

 

We are on the eve of a new era. The European Fashion Award FASH 2016 with the subject “Change” is searching for visions of a new era.
Wars, conflicts and catastrophes are not the only issues that change the way we view our world. There is no question: Digitalisation and globalisation enhance and facilitate our life, yet they also have a fundamental impact on the world. Smartphones make every networking attempt of the past look like a simple prelude. The start-up culture, shareconomy, co-creation, crowdsourcing and swapping, as well as the disruptive business models of international investors have created a completely new kind of economy. Hardly any industry remains unaffected by this change.
How can fashion react to all these changes? Should there be more adaptation, subversive strategies, or should we dream completely new dreams? Who will ride the wave of change and claim the future?

Participants from all over the world
The contest is open to especially talented design students of all disciplines, but especially from the fashion and textile design areas. Students of full age, currently enrolled in their fourth semester or higher are entitled to participate as well as Master/PhD students in their first semester. In a second category, final projects, theses and dissertations, as well as bachelor and masters projects can be submitted.
Registrations is open from now until August 31st, 2015. The submission deadline is September, 25th, 2015. Find the detailed call here.

Prizes with a total value of 80,000 Euro
The award purse totals 80,000 Euro. Apart from financial awards of 10,000 Euro the prizewinners participate from the network of SDBI and in the mentoring program founded in 2014. In addition, their works will be presented professionally. The winning work will be photographed by the renowned fashion and portrait photographer Franco P. Tettamanti who is working for clients such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, Akris, Vivienne Westwood.

Jury with experienced experts
A jury consisting of international design, industry, and media experts will select the award winners according to set criteria. The jury members are Franco P. Tettamanti (Paris), Margareta van den Bosch (Stockholm), who is as Creative Advisor responsible for the H&M Guest Collections, Antonio Cristaudo (Florence), Global Marketing Development Manager of the world’s most important men’s fashion fair Pitti Uomo, and one of the world’s most knowledgeable Expert of young designers, Jutta Kraus (Paris/Los Angeles) who founded the brand Bernhard Willhelm alongside its namesake, the designers Michael Sontag and Joel S. Horwitz as well as SDBI Director Joachim Schirrmacher (all Berlin).

Platform for Young Designers
The European Fashion Award FASH is considered one of the most important international endorsement awards for fashion students, and has been active as a platform for the new generation of designers since 2005. SDBI award winners have excellent career chances. Today, many of them work at internationally renowned companies, such as Adidas, Hugo Boss or like Tim Labenda under his own name. Furthermore, many of them have been honored with additional awards.
The European Fashion Award FASH is an annual competition by the not-for-profit Stiftung der Deutschen Bekleidungsindustrie (German Fashion Industry Foundation), in short SDBI. Klaus Steilmann, at the time Europe’s largest manufacturer of women’s fashion, founded SDBI in 1978. Today the work of SDBI is based on Messe München and the SDBI Circle of Friends: Allude, Bueronardin, Closed and Freitag.