A shower of prizes on KADK from the Designers’ Nest competition

On 10 August, the Designers’ Nest talent competition was a huge success for KADK. Three of KADK Design School’s new graduate designers won one of the prestigious prizes, including the much-coveted first prize of DKK 50,000. True to tradition, the prizes were awarded by Crown Princess Mary, who is the patron of Designers’ Nest.

The first prize went to Shila Gaonkar for her degree project, ‘Accident’. In the collection, which was also shown in Tuesday’s Future of Fashion fashion show at Børsen, she investigates and experiments with female perfection and perversion, putting paid to the usual limitations on how gender can dress up.

“The winner’s work reflects an exploration of the sexes. She is interested in finding a third place between ‘boxes’, bodies, standards and gender. She sets out to shift the boundaries in terms of awkwardness and perfection,” said the host and jury member, Ane Lynge-Jorlén.

The 2nd prize went to Julie Amalie Svensson for the collection, ‘MISU MATCHI’. Julie investigated the unique and special aspects of a number of recycled everyday objects. On the basis of a process of deconstruction, in which she split up the objects and re-assembled them in new ways, Julie created a collection of 18 ‘mismatched’ articles of clothing.

Tobias Birk Nielsen was awarded a Special Prize & Mention from Eyes on Talents, an online platform that connects talents and brands. Tobias received the prize for his collection, ‘Uniform of Great Hope’, which he describes as an Arctic journey through time, inspired,  for example, by a photo from war-torn Aleppo.

KADK’s designers set the agenda
KADK was delighted with the excellent result, as was the head of subject at the School of Design, Mathilde Aggebo: ““I am very proud of the fact that KADK has won an impressive three prizes at this year’s Designers’ Nest competition. This puts the icing on the cake for a very strong year of design graduates. Competition in the field has been great. The professional level in Scandinavian design schools is high. The result shows that KADK’s design graduates are helping to set the agenda for the future of fashion.  The projects reflect the many different social challenges we have, whether exploring the concept of gender in Shila Gaonkar’s compelling collection, or scarcity of resources and the need to improve in terms of recycling our materials, which we see in Julie Amalie Svensson’s project. Or take Tobias Birk Nielsen, who won the special ‘Eyes on Talents’ prize for a very accomplished collection, which paints a dystopian picture of a possible future.”

Designers’ Nest
A total of 30 students from Scandinavian design schools entered the competition. Their collections were judged on the basis of creativity, innovation, originality and the potential to achieve commercial success. The jury consisted of five, experienced personalities from the international fashion industry:

• Ane Lynge-Jorlén, Host
• Marisole Pastori, Senior Consultant at Eyes on Talents
• Alice Pfeiffer, fashion journalist, Le Monde, and a contributor to I-D and French Vogue
• Anders Sølvsteen Thomsen, stylist and creative consultant
• Hitoshi Tajima, Director, the UEDA College of Fashion