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International Talent Support competition about to start 20th edition
On Friday September 9 and Saturday 10, the International Talent Support competition will stage its Trieste event, in the north-east of Italy. The emerging designer competition, founded in 2002 by Barbara Franchin, has announced that 24 new talents from 14 countries will participate in the final. ITS is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and will exceptionally also welcome back the finalists of the 2020 and 2021 editions, who were deprived of the chance to attend the final in person due to the pandemic.
The event's venue is the Salone degli Incanti, a hall in Trieste’s old port, once home to the local fish market. The two-day final event will showcase the creations that caught the attention of the jury, led by Franchin and including among others the creative director of Balenciaga, Demna, who won the ITS competition in 2004. Other talents have emerged at ITS in recent years, like Matthieu Blazy, a finalist in 2006, now head of style at Bottega Veneta, and the creative director of Courrèges, Nicolas Di Felice.
Twelve projects will compete in ITS’s 2022 edition for the main category, fashion, featuring 13 finalists: Brais Albor from Spain, Asato Kitamura and Yudai Tanaka and Anna Sugiura from Japan, Ching-Lin Chen from Taiwan, Charlie Constantinou from the UK, Mata Durikovic from Slovakia, Petra Fagerström from Sweden, Hanna-Lotta Hanhela from Finland, Tatjana Haupt from Germany, Eva Heugenhauser from Austria, Rafaela Pestritu from Romania, and Lili Schreiber from Belgium.
Three finalists have been selected for the accessories category: Ruby Mellish from the UK, Marco Anzil from Italy, and Victor Salinier from France. Four of the fashion finalists - Durikovic, Haupt and the Tanaka & Sugiura duo - are also competing for the Artwork award sponsored by Swatch, alongside Edward Mendoza and James Walsh from the UK, and Takehiro Mabuchi from Japan. Finally, three finalists have been selected for the Sportwear prize awarded by Lotto Sport: Hin Fung Jesse Lee from China, and Constantinou and Mendoza from the UK.
In parallel with the competition, ITS will offer a preview of Arcademy, its museum and design centre, set to open in March 2023. Visitors will have opportunity to view an exhibition curated by Olivier Saillard on the evolution of 20 years in contemporary fashion. The historian has delved into ITS’s extensive archives, which include 14,359 portfolios, 1,077 garments, 160 accessories, 118 items of jewellery and 700 photographic projects, donated over the years by participants in the competition since its creation.
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