SUPIMA DESIGN LAB The 6th Annual Fashion Exhibition

SUPIMA DESIGN LAB The 6th Annual Fashion Exhibition. Supima presents the 6th Supima Design Lab, an annual fashion exhibition that celebrates talent from around the world across all levels of expertise with one common trait: endless imagination. Taking place at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Paris, France, the Supima Design Lab includes the finalists of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories – Hyères, the Supima Design Competition, and Leading International Designers.

Their exclusive creations showcase the endless creative possibilities rooted in Supima’s commitment to sustainable innovation and superior quality.

SUPIMA DESIGN LAB The 6th Annual Fashion Exhibition – LEADING INTERNATIONAL DESIGNERS

This carefully selected group of creatives represent some the most exciting and talked about designers currently showing on international runways. Created exclusively for the Supima Design Lab, each designer’s silhouette showcases the endless possibilities of fabrics made with Supima cotton. Stemming from a commitment to design, sustainable innovation and superior quality, Supima chose this group because of our belief that they represent the future of fashion in their exemplary practices, approach and design.

Nix Lecourt Mansion

Plugged into the music scene and unafraid to challenge conventions, Nix Lecourt Mansion is among a new generation of Paris designers attracting attention at home and abroad. Her blended approach to couture and ready-to-wear results in looks that can be provocative in silhouette and surface detail. In addition to partnering with Jean-Paul Gaultier, Mugler and L’Oréal among others, Lecourt Mansion received the Pierre Bergé Prize at the 2019 Andam Prize.

Victor Weinsanto

A ballet dancer trained at the John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, Victor Weinsanto realized his calling was in fashion. Paris’ Atelier Chardon Savard School led him to discover “the joy of having fun with clothes,” which he continued to explore at Y/project, Maxime Simoens and Chloé. His most formative experience in the fashion industry is without a doubt the two years he spent working with Jean Paul Gaultier, where he learned about savoir-faire, craftsmanship and freedom in his creative process. Victor Weinsanto is committed to a fashion industry that is sustainable.

Julie de Libran

Having worked at Gianfranco Ferré, Gianni Versace, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Sonia Rykiel, Julie de Libran launched her first eponymous collection in 2019. Always devoted to the highest standards of design, workmanship, and of responsible production, Julie de Libran designs and produces pieces in very limited quantities using archived fabrics to avoid waste in a responsible approach to design. Julie de Libran is proud to promote French know-how and craftmanship through her involvement with renowned jewelers such as Goossens and the solicitation of prestigious couture and embroidery houses.

Niccolò Pasqualetti

Central Saint Martins graduate Niccolò Pasqualetti cut his teeth at The Row, Alighieri and Loewe. Distinguished by its full embrace of ambivalent androgyny, his work is rooted in the geometries of nature, where unseen shapes emerge from intuitions and ergonomic design leads to a deep integration into everyday life. By drawing upon the spontaneity of found objects, Niccolò Pasqualetti unearths a new perspective on the concept of the one-of-a-kind piece.

Jenny Hytönen

Paris-based Finnish artist Jenny Hytönen combines traditional, hand-made craftsmanship techniques of knitting and leathercraft with new experimental technologies to bring to life the intricate and sensuous structures she imagines. A graduate of Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Jenny Hytönen has won the intitution’s Näytös Award for her graduate collection before heading to Paris where she worked as a knitwear designer at Olivier Theyskens. In 2022, was awarded the Grand Prix du Jury Premiere Vision and the Audience Award 2022 during the 37th International fashion, photography and fashion accessories festival in Hyères in recognition for her exquisite creations. Jenny Hytönen is currently building her own brand.

Vincent Pressiat

With his eponymous no-gender brand, Vincent Garnier Pressiat created a world where all inhibitions fall away, where light triumphs over the shadowy spectre of society. Chic, provocative with Parisian elegance, Vincent Pressiat’s brand celebrates joy, self-confidence, melancholy and combines craftsmanship, architecture and art with the world of night life. A graduate of IFM who cut his teeth at John Galliano, Maison Margiela, Saint Laurent and Balmain, Vincent Pressiat has attracted major attention since launching his brand in 2021, in the media, among celebrities like Alton Mason and Halsey, and even having his creations featured in the third season of Netflix’s hit show “Emily in Paris.”

SUPIMA DESIGN LAB The 6th Annual Fashion Exhibition – INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FASHION, PHOTOGRAPHY AND ACCESSORIES, HYÈRES

Since its creation in 1986 by Jean-Pierre Blanc, the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories – Hyères has been promoting and supporting young international fashion and accessory designers and photographers. The 38th edition of the Hyères Festival recently took place October 12th – 15th, 2023 at the villa Noailles, where a jury of industry professionals awarded prizes to the competing designs, thanks to grants provided by the festival’s partners.

The Supima Design Lab is proud to present looks made by a select group of finalists from Hyères’s fashion and accessories finalists.

Igor Dieryck

This year’s winner of the Grand Prix of the Jury Première Vision, The Le19M Métiers d’Art Prize and the Public Prize City of Hyères is Igor Dieryck. Igor Dieryck born in southern Belgium to a Flemish father and Walloon mother, this 2022 fashion masters graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp sees his work as analytical and political, having grown up well aware of the complexity of his double cultural heritage. After experiences at independent label Meryll Rogge and Acne Studios, Igor Dieryck has joined Hermès as junior menswear designer. Showing at Hyères has been a longstanding goal for the Belgian designer, who looked at those too often ignored and concealed by a system that prevents them from ever obtaining any power in “Yessir,” based on his experience in the hospitality industry.

Petra Fagerstrom

Mercedes-Benz Sustainability Prize and L’Atelier des Matières Prize winner Petra Fagerstrom is a graduate of Parsons Paris’ bachelor program in fashion design. The coming-of-age dilemma of being a girl trying to fit in while setting herself apart triggered the Swedish-born designer’s relationship to fashion and led her to discover its power through the way it affects both self-perception and the outside gaze.

Storytelling is central to Fagerstrom’s practice and she enjoys telling sentimental stories that evoke a childlike fascination with materials and garments. Her most recent experiment is translating lenticular cards into textiles, as seen in her winning collection that was inspired by her grandmother, a parachutist in the Soviet Union, juxtaposing dreams of California to the reality of life under a totalitarian regime. Aiming to launch her brand, Petra Fagerstrom is in the Swedish Fashion Council’s incubator program and plans to launch her brand.

Alec Bizby

Exploring concepts of folklore, paganism and masculinity, Alec Bizby’s world is sensitive and full of meaning. Hailing from Wales, Alec Bizby graduated from Central Saint Martins’ fashion masters course in 2022 and received the Isabelle Blow scholarship.

Alec Bizby showed on schedule at London Fashion Week as part of Discoverylab and is currently working at Alexander McQueen to be put all his acquired luxury knowledge into his work – and his future business. Filial love but also the pain and grief were the catalysts for his “Dwi Yma” collection presented in Hyères, exploring the emotions felt caring for his father during the final weeks of his life at the family farm in the Brecon Beacons.

Bo Kwon Min

Bo Kwon Min Born in the southeastern city of Ulsan, South Korea, Bo Kwon Min moved to Seoul at the age of 20 to study fashion design at Kookmin University. After his 2018 graduating, the designer worked for a number of Korean brands before launching Akpil in 2022. The brand’s name translates into “bad handwriter,” or someone who forms letters in the “wrong” way, which he sees as being inventive rather than out of order. For the collection presented in Hyères, Bo Kwon Min wanted a poem about the cities we live in written with the materials of his craft – praise for what our civilizations have accomplished or revelation of how people suffer there, only the viewer knows.

Fengyuan Dai

Becoming a fashion designer was no straight path for Fengyuan Dai. While dance, music, calligraphy and traditional seal carving were part of his cultural upbringing, his parents were reluctant to let their child move away from China to study fashion. But the would-be designer’s will prevailed, particularly after encountering a stylist who gave him the impetus to pursue his dream in Marseille, where Fengyuan Dai pursued a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts.

A new culture, language and atmosphere far removed from his native China eventually led to switching to fashion design at Atelier Chardon Savard, in Nantes and later Paris. Since then, colors and shapes have occupied Dai’s thoughts as he garnered experiences at houses such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Sandrine Philippe, building self-confidence and Fengyuan Dai’s personal style of expression that will soon be translated into a personal collection.

Jung Eun Lee

Berlin-based Jung Eun Lee obtained a bachelor or arts in textile design at Ewha Women’s University in her home city of Seoul, South Korea, before pursuing fashion design at Berlin’s School of Applied Arts. The situation of the past few years sparked an interest in how viruses emerge from the invasion of animal habitats and led her to question the use of hides in fashion’s consumer culture, and particularly their position as a symbol of luxury and opulence.

In her collection for the competition in Hyères, Jung Eun Lee translated those thoughts into a collection where she reimagined these prized skins by an extensive repertoire of handwork and innovative materials to tackle the connection between luxury animal skins and the fetish of animals.

Leevi Ikäkeimo

Helsinki-based fashion and textile designer Leevi Ikäheimo is currently finishing his Master of Art studies in Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Leevi Ikäkeimo’s work explores themes related to human anatomy, sexual identity and queer experience through a multidisciplinary approach that combines textile art, fashion design and costume design.

Knitwear is his forte, recycled and repurposed textiles are his palette and Leevi Ikäkeimo is constantly pushing towards a world of inclusive, sustainable glamour. “No Pain No Glamour,” presented in Hyères, is a satirical statement on how boys are pushed the outrageously unrealistic proportion of plastic bodies from a young age.

Norman Mabire-Larguier

Paris-based fashion designer Norman Mabire-Larguier studied at La Cambre Mode[s] in Brussels before pursuing a Master degree in Fashion Design at HEAD—Geneva.

Their architectural and monochromatic style, sensitive and radical, is the result of an in-depth formal research and an intimate quest for an inner freedom. With an already confirmed experience in several fashion houses, Norman Mabire-Larguier developed a broad expertise in fashion design for menswear, womenswear, accessories and footwear as well as image direction and sustainability. “The strongest way to connect with my work is not to use words but to breathe. Just breathing, as the most essential thing in our life ; the most personal and intimate,” Norman Mabire-Larguier said of the collection presented in competition at Hyères.

Tiago Bessa

Recently graduated from Modatex Porto, Tiago Bessa originally studied science and technology, aiming to pursue forensic science after high school. But spending hours in a laboratory was no path to fulfilment for the Guimarães-born designer with a pattern-maker mother and seamstress grandmother. Fashion, however, was a source of accomplishment. With their academic background as a reference, anatomy remains an inspiration for work that has won Best Portuguese Collection and Best Overall Collection at the ModaPortugal international contest. Recently Tiago Bessa were an intern for the couture atelier of Viktor&Rolf in Amsterdam. Tiago Bessa explored the social gender construct and their personal journey as a non-binary individual.

Yeonghyeon Kim

In a first for the Supima Design Lab, accessories designer Yeonghyeon Kim has designed a silhouette for the showcase. This graduate of Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, studied metalworking and jewelry design. Yeonghyeon Kim established Quiet23, a leather education brand that specializes in DIY kits and handmade goods using vegetable leather with the support of a technology innovation-type start-up support project hosted by Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development.

For the accessories competition, the Delusion body ornament series fuses the influences of Stockholm Syndrome, Taemin’s “Criminal” music video, Brutalism architecture, and the concept of the grotesque was portrayed through the depiction of exaggerated hands intertwined, hands covering eyes and mouths, and hands imposing restrictions on actions, a combination of intense colors, raw expressions.

SUPIMA DESIGN COMPETITION at SUPIMA DESIGN LAB The 6th Annual Fashion Exhibition

For the past 16 years, Supima has partnered with top design schools across the US to give runway exposure to the best of their recent design school graduates through the annual Supima Design Competition. Each finalist is tasked with creating an eveningwear capsule using Supima cotton fabrics, with their collections showcased in a runway presentation during NYFW. The winner, selected by a panel of industry judges, receives a $10,000 prize from Supima to kick-start their design career.

SUPIMA DESIGNER COMPETITION WINNER

Carla Pierini, Drexel University. Design Specialty: Weaving, Zero-waste Pattern Making

Growing up in Venezuela, Carla Pierini was in awe of her mother’s resourcefulness. Not only did frequent trips to the fabric store led to garments coming to life from pattern to finish, but no scrap would ever be wasted, with fabrics used over and over and over again.

This zero-waste and recycling approach still resonates with the Venezuelan designer today, forming the bedrock of her design ethos. At Drexel University, Carla Pierini flourished thanks to a curriculum that ranges from sustainable design class and CLO design to pattern-making classes and the freedom to experiment and develop her own zero-waste techniques. Tapping into her Venezuelan roots and exploring the ongoing refugee crisis that still plagues her country today, Carla Pierini tells the story of an immigrant pursuing their potential through textile manipulations, rebuilding oneself anew.

THE SUPIMA CLASS OF 2023

Sahara Clemons, Rhode Island School of Design. Design Specialty: Knitwear

The craft of making has long been a source of intrigue for Sahara Clemmons, who gets a sense of satisfaction from creating something, anything that starts as a thought in her head. Hailing from Charlottesville, VA, Sahara Clemmons majored in apparel design at Rhode Island School of Design, also taking courses in painting, textiles and a Harvard online business course to get a better understanding of the industry. Her “Skin Deep” Supima® collection centered around the fear of exposure within intimacy, applying textile manipulations inspired by skin textures and nature to tell of the internal struggle between the desire for connection and intimacy and the fear of rejection.

Mariana Espinosa, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Design Specialty: Textile Innovation, Natural Dyeing

Wearing a back brace 23 hours a day, every day, following a scoliosis diagnosis made Mariana Espinosa keenly aware of the confidence of validation rooted in clothing but also an in-depth understanding of what quality. This native of San Antonio, TX, set out to become a designer, enrolling at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, drawn by its multidisciplinary approach, a well-rounded curriculum that includes philosophy as well as design and construction as well as encouragement to create work that used several mediums and skills. Mariana Espinosa collection was inspired by scholar Catherine S. Ramirez and the concept of “Chicana Futurism,” celebrating Mexican culture and honoring its strength, beauty and craft.

Hee Jin Hwang, Fashion Institute of Technology. Design Specialty: Abstract, Wearable Art

With a father that was a sculptor and a grandmother that owned a textile business, Hee Jin Hwang knew at a young age Hee Jin Hwang wanted art to be a part of her life, steeped as she was in art and culture. Over time, Hee Jin Hwang came to see fashion design as a medium for her creative expression. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art at INHA University in Incheon at the end of a culture-heavy curriculum, she headed to New York City to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology where she was eventually invited to take part in its Future of Fashion capsule program. For her Supima collection which brought wearable art to the runway, Hee Jin Hwang relied on thoughts and memories from her childhood and the influence of her sculptor father.

Amber Kuai, Academy of Art University. Design Specialty: Unrestricted Construction

Over time, Amber Kuai’s idea of fashion transformed, going from notions of fabrics, textures and the romance of the runway to a way to bring to life the intangible and a medium to express thoughts and emotions. Upon graduation from the Taiwanese education system which favored academics over art and music, Amber Kuai looked to fill the creative void and set her sights on attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she majored in fashion design. Despite this, the nature of Taiwan, where her hometown of Linkou is located, inspired her Supima® collection where she opted to forgo the precise constructions Amber Kuai favors to take a more abstract approach to her designs that would resonate more strongly with her theme.

Wendy Weng, Kent State University. Design Specialty: Womenswear

It’s in the pages of the “How to Draw Clothing” book that New Yorker Wendy Weng found her calling. The idea of fashion design and the endless possibilities that go with designing a collection resonated with her young self who was sketching silhouettes aged 11. Kent State University’s fashion pedigree and study abroad program proved a fertile terrain for Weng to thrive, as Wendy Weng enrolled with a Major in fashion design, an associate degree in arts and a minor in Chinese. Wendy Weng participated in their Florence program and soon after, in the prestigious Paris American Academy program. Her Supima sophisticated take on womenswear is inspired by nature’s destruction and its ability to regenerate life, using color and texture to show how nature is able to comeback after destruction.

Tianze Wu, Parsons School of Design. Design Specialty: Womenswear

Tianze Wu learned the process and creativity that goes into the creation of a garment by following his father, a successful fashion designer who early in his career was designing creative leather garments, into his studio. But it’s designs on the runway that led to a career in fashion. At Parsons School of Design, Tianze Wu majored in fashion design but also explored his creative side further through an eclectic set of courses such as metal fabrication, rounding out his approach to design. Tianze Wu collection is inspired by his thesis work, blending a hard industrial aesthetic with that of the natural flowing fabric of Supima cotton through the use of prints and patterns drawn from his cultural heritage and metal structures of his own creation.

Alexander Ziemba, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Design Specialty: General Fashion Design

The saying Necessity is the Mother of Invention could not hold truer in the case of Alexander Ziemba. Faced with clothes too roomy for his body frame or aspiring to designs beyond his price point, this designer from Santa Maria, Ca., learned how to sew and pattern draft at a young age. The self-taught designer soon wanted to learn more about pattern-making and garment construction, enrolling at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles where Alexander Ziemba received an associate’s degree in fashion design and also completed the DEBUT Advanced Fashion program. His approach for his Supima® collection is around subjective memory and romanticism, with designs incorporating distorted nostalgia as a nod to our innate ability to romanticize what we can longer possess or return to.