thesis collection: mittelmoda2011

Sunday, July 17, 2011

mittelmoda2011_appuntidaunafinalista

mittelmoda_2011

Mittelmoda is an annual international design competition, held in Gorizia, Italy. It acts as a platform for recent graduates and young designers to connect with each other, network and gain some exposure-while presenting their capsule collections- to a jury composed bt some of the most powerful and important people in the Italian/European fashion industry.

I had the honor to be chosen as one of the 17 finalists (out of more than 600 applicants) and I was truly excited to be a part of it: http://zagb.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-horizons.html especially because it gave me a CONCRETE reason to come back to EUROPE!

photo x Jesee Lee

I've been in Italy for a month and a half now, and its been a rollercoaster of emotions.
In fact - I APPOLOGIZE for being MIA, and having abbandoned the blog-

I spent my first week back sleeping a lot, attending a friend's wedding, eating delicious food, and catching up with important people... I needed a breather because the past 3 months had been incredibly tough/crazy- and what was about to come was no piece of cake.

I had to make 4 outfits in roughly 2 weeks. I'm talking about knitted outfits composed of 2+ pieces each- so... lets think= 7pieces.

I went to MILAN and was able to use the labs at the Politecnico di Milano (where I studied abroad x a year) to finish my collection. I was at the lab every day from 9-6pm and then kept going once I went home. I mapped out a work schedule, taking in consideration how much time I thought it would take me to make each garment- but as usual- everything took twice as long.

After many sleepless nights ... the collection was done!
(mind you, i was still burrying ends of yarn on the train ride to Gorizia)

MY backstage rack. photo x kat chen

All the finalists were invited to spend 3 days in Gorizia, IT. It was an amazing oportunity to meet incredible people from all over the world who share the same passion, to discuss, and have a great exchange of ideas.
PLUS... we got to see our collections modelled by professional models, in a real catwalk- AND have nice pictures-
I'm still trying to get some more, in the meantime...
enjoy!