The Winners of The European Fashion Award FASH 2014

Simon Rudolf Richter, Mai Duong, Anna Schröder, Kaur R. Hensel, Young Sun Ko, Danny Reinke, Laura Bach, Carolin Sprenger. Foto: © SDBI

The winners of the European Fashion Award FASH 2014 have been selected. They will receive their awards on Monday, January 13, 2014, on the occasion of the Berlin Fashion Week. Following a presentation of the six winning collections the jury will announce the individual awards.  

The Winners of the European Fashion Award FASH 2014

(these are NOT nominations):

Laura Bach, Kevin Perlinger, Carolin Sprenger
Pforzheim University – School of Design

Mai Duong
University of Applied Sciences Berlin

Young Sun Ko
University of Arts Bremen

Danny Reinke
Fahmoda – Academy for Fashion and Design Hannover

Simon Rudolf Richter
University of Applied Sciences Berlin

Anna Schröder, Kaur R. Hensel
Burg Giebichenstein – University of Art and Design Halle

A jury of international experts from the design, industry, retail, communication and media sectors spent two days selecting the winners among 104 participants from 27 countries:
Margareta van den Bosch, Creative Adviser, H & M – Hennes & Mauritz, Stockholm
Stephan Meyer, Creative Director, Harpers Bazaar, Berlin
Dr. Adelheid Rasche, Curator, Fashion Image Collection – National Museums in Berlin
Joachim Schirrmacher, Creative Consultant, Berlin
Michael Sontag, Designer, Berlin
Robb Young, Fashion Journalist and Consultant, London

The projects submitted to the European Fashion Award FASH 2014 on the topic “Rhythm” illustrated aspects of nature, film, music or dance, but also the busy character and exhausting dynamics of today’s society, or the unbalanced rhythm of fashions: “Fashion trends are always discarded very quickly,” one participant brings it to a point and adds: “Even people are treated like consumer goods. Their manpower is bought, used, and exhausted. As soon as a person no longer functions he or she is considered useless.”

30 percent of all participants and four of the six winning collections designed fashions for men and women, and thus provide both genres with new inspiration. The focus was not on androgynous character: “Do women really want to dress up like men and vice versa?” but on a less restrictive expression of identity. “This entails that men borrow fashion elements from women, and the other way around.”
The young designers implemented their concepts with narrow and wide silhouettes, slim fit and oversized, symmetries and asymmetries. A pleasantly surprising number of students experimented with fabrics.

While in years past the selection was difficult among the many great projects, this time – despite 20 percent more entries – the low number of extraordinary projects, a very small mid-range and a high number of weak projects surprised the jury. This may be the result of the Bachelor/Master system, which leaves very little time for students to deal with anything but their compulsory studies.

The European Fashion Award FASH 2014 will be presented in one of Europe’s most exclusive photography studios, the 600-square-meter Studio 1 by Delight Rental Studio in the Backfabrik at Alexanderplatz. The photo shoot by renowned fashion photographer Gregor Hohenberg is an essential element of the award. His images will be presented in a catalogue during the award presentation, and will also be displayed at www.sdbi.de.