NYLON - January 2009 - (Page 68) made in italy The sleepy town of Trieste, Italy, is not a place frequented by the glitterati. Ask any one of the 208,000 locals where the party is, and they will direct you across the nearest border, to Slovenia’s capital city, Ljubljana. But once a year, the International Talent Support (ITS) fashion, accessories, and photography competition, in partnership with Diesel, descends upon the seaside locale in a flurry of ankle boots and sunglasses. Once there, a cross section of the fashion vanguard sets about investigating the best and brightest among a diverse crop of emerging talent. In an era when any trust fund baby with a flair for self-promotion can peddle a line of handbags, it’s easy to forget the age-old plight of the struggling creative type. Though the occasional diamond-in-the-rough discovery story does exist—renowned stylist and ITS jury member Patti Wilson remembers cultivating her ensembles for a cocktail waitressing gig until a well-placed patron admired her look and launched her career—establishing oneself in the fashion industry is, more often than not, one hell of a hustle. counterclockwise from top right: a design by david steinhorst; partygoers gazing at valentim manuel estevao quaresma accessories; a look by andrea cammarosano at its seven; shoes by nina hjorth; a heikki salonen dress on the runway. DIESEL AND THE INTERNATIONAL TALE SUPP FIND THE NEXT FASHION SUPERSTARS. NT ERIKAORT BY YORIO Luckily, the sartorial scope of ITS is far-reaching. Participants represent a total of 19 countries and draw on a grab-bag of influences, ranging from reindeer to Swedish children’s literature to the Ojibway Indians, in the service of the competition’s (thankfully, loosely interpreted) theme: The Seven Heavenly Sins. The runway is all about theatrics, and is awash in flora-adorned football helmets, gas masks, and oversized magic wands…and why not? This isn’t the CFDA, and playing to the new guard means the designers are free to indulge their more inventive tendencies. With judges such as Britain’s current enfant terrible, Gareth Pugh, and Wilbert Das, creative director of Diesel, it’s no surprise that the competition’s major award winners occupy very different places on the experimental spectrum. Accessories Collection of the Year–receiving craftsman Valentim Manuel Estevao Quaresma creations evoke the inner workings of an elaborate piece of broken-down machinery. For the girl in search of her Milla Jovovich–in–The Fifth Element moment, he offers up rough-hewn bracelets and rings stacked like so many stray gears, and audacious headpieces that extend down the spine like veritable exoskeletons. Mini Clubman Photo Award winner Kazutaka Nagashima renders the most restrained of portraits and landscapes in stark black and white. In addition to a 10,000 prize, he will spend the next year doing an apprenticeship with impressionist photographer Sarah Moon. Heikki Salonen, recipient of the sizeable 50,000 Diesel Award and self-professed “fashion underdog,” employs a Pippi Longstocking–in–menswear aesthetic to tailored pieces as subtle and subversive as Alexander Wang’s freshman effort. And David Steinhorst, who netted Fashion Collection of the Year, turns a fresh eye toward voluminous draped jersey dresses and jackets with heavy gunmetal beading and zippers aplenty. Past ITS finalists have gone on to prominent fashion houses like Viktor and Rolf, Chloé, and Lanvin, so it’s safe to expect tomorrow’s trends from this year’s prizewinners. Steinhorst has already debuted his first full collection at Barcelona Fashion Week. And Salonen assisted fashion darling Erdem Moralioglu before taking up a post at Diesel. While ITS is doing its part to rescue promising young talent from obscurity, the benefits are more than mutual. After all, fashion would be nothing without new blood. 68 profile all images courtesy of diesel
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