The winners of the international textile design competition Textile Design Talents Solstudio Award 2021 have been announced.
This year, 400 designers from 112 cities and 26 countries are participating in the competition. The list of countries is updated annually, along with European countries, participants from South Korea, Singapore, India, Trinidad and Tabago, Colombia, Brazil, and the USA join the competition.
The international jury evaluated more than 2500 works, determined 20 finalists and three winners.
David Sha, Founder of Textile View International magazine: I really liked the themes of the contest. Micro-nature and optimism are the key areas at the moment. In general, the works were at a high level, but, frankly, less inspiring and innovative than I expected. In the topic of "Micro-nature", many turned to the obvious work with texture and tachyism - excellent performance, but not surprising. In the topic "Optimism", the sense of color is quite obvious, there is a "safe" tendency to work with dense flat color in the style of the 70s, but with insufficient figurativism and humor. I definitely want to note that there were several truly first-class ideas and breathtaking works.
Giovanni Ottonello, Art Director of IED Istituto Europeo di Design: I'm always interested in how a pattern is born. It's amazing to watch the emotions and the idea behind the flower pattern, behind every brush movement. There are a lot of talented works in the competition, filled with passion and joy of life. Often, fashion designers do not put fabric in the first place and this is a big mistake. Understanding how the fabric falls, how light reflects, how color and pattern emphasize the shape, give the dress personality.
Alena Akhmadullina, the creator of the brand Alena Akhmadullina: Traditionally, while working in the jury, we choose an intern. For us, it should not necessarily be the winner of the competition. It is important that this artist has his own original view of the fabric pattern and style, consonant with our company.
Alexandra Kaloshina, Founder of Solstudio Textile Group: This was the fourth competition period, and we are starting to see how the approach of the participants is changing, especially those who have been sending their works for more than the first time. The works correspond to the task, analytical work is visible, the desire to approach outside the box. This year, the geography of the competition has significantly expanded. The participation of artists from different countries always gives a special breadth of approach to the topics. All the works are publicly available on our website and anyone who decides to participate next year will be able to study the drawings collected over three years and get an accurate idea of how to act.
1st place – Evgenia Yarygina (Russia)
The main prize for the winner of the competition from the European Institute IED Istituto Europeo di Design in Italy, Como is a two–week summer internship under the program "Textile Design: trend forecast, drawing and printing" in English with payment for a flight to Italy provided by SOYUZLEGPROM.
2nd place – Victoria Daneva (Italy)
A color cartridge-free Epson printer and 10 T-shirts with the winner's own design.
3rd place – Yulia Shora (Russia)
Digital printing on the fabric of the winner's pattern collection, consisting of 10 drawings at the participant's choice, at the Solstudio Industry factory.
Prizes in special nominations were provided by the partners of the contest: licenses for the use of the program and certificates for the training course "Training CAD Specialists (CST)" from AVA CAD/SAM for the winners, internships in Solstudio Textile Design studio and in the company of the brand Alena Akhmadullina, interviews with the winner from Fashion Collection magazine, as well as prizes for all finalists from the company Pantone and the Kalibr Technopark.
