The award, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, was presented together with a fashion show for the first time during the Neo Fashion Graduates Days in the Reinbeckhallen in Berlin-Oberschöneweide in front of over 300 guests.

The award winners:

• 1st prize students: Viola Schmidt, Hochschule Reutlingen – 1,500 euros prize money, Singer Heavy Duty 4423 sewing machine
• 1st prize: Bachelor: Idan Yoav, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee – 1,800 euros prize money, Singer embroidery machine EM 200 Soex special award: 1,000 euros
• 2nd prize: Bachelor: Lihi Mendel, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee – 1,700 euros prize money, Singer Heavy Duty 4423 sewing machine

The prizes

The award by a prestigious jury is one of the most important international prizes for fashion students. Further support for young talent was provided by machines from Singer Germany and a special award of 1,000 euros from textile recycler Soex.

“We are delighted to be able to support this important award. For us, circularity starts with design, which is why we are pleased that more and more young talents are thinking in terms of sustainability,” says Ann-Kathrin Lietz from Soex. Georg Günther, Managing Director Singer Germany: “We are proud to support this important competition and are convinced that many more extraordinary designs will be created with our SINGER sewing and embroidery machines.”

The award-winning works

A jury of internationally experienced experts selected the winners of the European Fashion Award FASH 2022 in two rounds based on defined criteria. The members of the jury were: Mela Bauer, Managing Director Fashion Agency Melagence; Arne Eberle, Arne Eberle press + sales and publisher ΠMagazine; Charlotte Gindreau, Fashion Stylist; Barbara Markert, Fashion and Business Journalist, Paris; Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus, CEO Gerry Weber AG and Joachim Schirrmacher, Creative Consultant.

It became clear that the pandemic has obviously left its mark on education. No wonder since many students were hardly able to study on campus or to have a personal exchange with teachers and fellow students. So, it is not surprising that the jury selected comparatively mature personalities for the European Fashion Award FASH 2022. All award winners have not only designed fashion, but also textile design.

Viola Schmidt’s purposeful creativity shows a wide spectrum of excellently realised techniques and argues for a hopeful view of the future in order to be able to recognise possibilities for action. Idan Yoav’s expressive costume design, by using the idea of “Queering Tradition”, virtuously combines the most diverse sources into a mature artistic achievement full of overflowing joie de vivre: nomads, festivals and camping, Greek antiquity, or Jewish-Kurdish and Polish tradition. Lihi Mendel explored pre-Israeli Orientalism and designed hybrids between East and West. The expressive textile prints show wheat, oats, and eucalyptus in harmony with the Palestinian landscape.

• The European Fashion Award FASH: The European Fashion Award FASH is one of the most important international prizes for fashion students. It is awarded by the non-profit Stiftung der Deutschen Bekleidungsindustrie (German Fashion Industry Foundation), SDBI for short. Founded in 1978, SDBI is the world’s oldest organization for the promotion of particularly talented fashion students. The award winners have excellent career prospects. They work for internationally renowned companies such as Adidas, Alpha Tauri, Fila, Gucci, Hugo Boss and for designers such as Dries van Noten or Vivienne Westwood; sometimes as senior designers or heads of design. In addition, they have often received numerous other awards.