Dear Shaded Viewers & Diane,
This year’s eagerly awaited event was held in two parts at Espace Hippomène on Friday 18 November—the first show at 6:00 p.m. and the second at 8:30 p.m.—in a sober and effective set design that focused on the highlight of the evening: twenty collections by BA graduates and seven collections by MA graduates. BA graduate Dan Dwir was awarded the HEAD Bachelor’s Bongénie Prize, to a value of CHF 5,000. His ‘Utopia’ collection, which showcases the duality between mankind and its most basic animal instincts in seeking to satisfy unconscious desires, delighted the jury with its powerful and dreamlike aura.
The HEAD Master’s Mercedes-Benz Prize to a value of CHF 10,000 went to MA graduate Vanessa Schindler for her ‘Urethane Pool, Chapter 2’ collection. A rare occurrence for a jury, the choice was unanimous. A clever combination of theoretical and practical findings, the laureate’s collection offers a series of sophisticated looks often reminiscent of haute couture while being emancipated from the ‘cutting, sewing and overstitching’ of traditional dressmaking. Some have already tagged Vanessa’s collection as ‘the fashion of tomorrow’.
At the end of the second fashion show, HEAD Director Jean-Pierre Greff was quick to thank his teams, starting with Head of Fashion Design Léa Peckre and Head of Industrial & Product Design (Fashion, Jewellery, Watch and Accessory Design) Elizabeth Fischer, without forgetting fashion show coordinator Nina Gander, and Communications Manager Sandra Mudronja and her team.
Greff also thanked the event’s partners and sponsors, ‘without whom this beautiful show would simply not be possible’, starting with media partners Bolero, Novembre magazine, Léman Bleu and One FM, main partner Mercedes-Benz, Défilé partners Chloé and Bongénie and Hotel N’vY, professional partners MAC and Le Bal des Créateurs, and the evening’s partners Skynight and Espace Hippomène.
Before giving the floor to the President of the Jury, he also thanked Jean-Pierre Blanc, Director of the International Festival of Fashion and Photography Competition in Hyères, for his valuable friendship.
President of the Jury Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Paris-based Fashion Designer and Artistic Director at Lacoste, paid tribute to the students for their talent and creativeness, and the HEAD for its quality, which he declared was on a par with the best fashion design programmers in the world.
His jury featured the following prominent members:
Jean-Marc Brunschwig, partner, Brunschwig Holding SA, owner of Bongénie Grieder
Isabelle Cerboneschi, Editor-in-Chief, Le Temps Special Edition, Geneva
José Lamali, Artistic Director at Etudes Studio, Paris
Valentina Maggi, Head of Design, Floriane de Saint Pierre & Associates, Paris
Florence Tétier, Editor-in-Chief, Novembre Magazine, Paris
Julian Zigerli, Fashion Designer, Zurich
The 2016 HEAD Défilé—the first under the artistic direction of new Head of Fashion Design since 2015 Léa Peckre—won over the public with the sober yet effective quality of its set design. A leading figure for a new generation of experienced young designers, Peckre has been managing her own Parisian brand since 2012, after proving her worth in the haute couture creation workshops of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Givenchy and Isabelle Marant, after graduating. In 2011, her collection entitled Les cimetières sont des champs de fleurs (‘Cemeteries are Fields of Flowers’) earned her the Grand Jury Prize at the Hyeres Festival, presided over by Raf Simons, and in 2015 she won the First Collection Prize at the ANDAM – the National Association for the Development of Fashion Arts. HEAD of Industrial & Product Design (Fashion, Jewellery, Watch and Accessory Design) Elizabeth Fischer also succeeded in steering the Jewellery Design program towards exciting and original new horizons.
Over 2,000 people attended the fashion show, which was held for the second year running at Espace Hippomène. True to form, the public showed great enthusiasm for the show, the talent and the efforts undertaken by the students. The icing on the cake is that the public got to admire the Jewellery, Watch and Accessory Design students’ works, which were magnificently exhibited in the showroom adjacent to the venue.
Best,
MHM.
