Threads. Eyelets. Neon

Recently Minsk hosted the final of Fashion Mill 2023, the 32nd edition of national festival-competition of fashion and photo. Young designers presented 61 collections to the jury. The costumes were created together with professionals especially for the festival-competition and were shown on the big podium for the first time.  We got acquainted with the participants and new trends in the fashion world.

Your time, your opportunities

There were a few hours left before the gala show at Prime Hall. There was a festive atmosphere behind the scenes. Behind several stages of selection, master classes from leading experts in the field of fashion, design and photography. Now 300 representatives of the beauty industry —trendy designers, charming models, extravagant stylists, creative hairdressers and photographers, overcoming excitement, were preparing to demonstrate their skills.
Jury member, artist creating three-dimensional textile sculptures, author of The Tree of Knowledge nine-metre installation at the World Expo 2020 in Dubai Khristina Vysotskaya noted that this time the collections are more avant-garde, “Fashion designer is a difficult profession, but promising, you just need to work hard. If there is a desire and energy to create something new, it will be possible to break through. These are the qualities we are looking for in young talents.”
The leitmotif of Fashion Mill this year was ‘The Time of Your Opportunities’. Some well-known brands left the Belarusian and Russian markets, leaving a niche for our young designers. Moreover, they did not miss their chance. Daria Shurpakova brought the No Name collection from Grodno. Conceptual monochrome things with elements of deconstructivism will easily enter the wardrobe of any girl, “Many elements, such as wire for frames, were bought at a regular hardware store. When the budget is small, you have to spin. I wanted to create things in which you can go out into the street right from the catwalk. My mom helped me in the work — she has been in the sewing business for more than 30 years. Therefore, it is not a shame to look at our products from the inside: all seams are even and neat, no protruding threads and uneven edges.”
The main idea of Daria Shurpakova’s collection is ‘don’t be afraid to stand out’. She broadcasts the entire creation process on TikTok: already more than 10 thousand subscribers write a lot of motivating comments. The young designer already has her own brand.
VSTU student Nikita Zakharchuk dreamed of becoming a designer from the age of six. A lot of time has passed — and here is Nikita at the Fashion Mill, for the third time, however, “I twice participated as a designer and even took second place, and this year I decided to try myself in a new role — a photographer. I present the Life Is Woven with the Threads of Time project, in which, through the author’s Gerly collection, I showed my creative path. It was not easy, but now I can say that I succeeded. This photo project is about this — about striving for a dream, about audacity on the way to the goal.”
Nikita is sure that the festival-competition is a real fashion event for the whole of Belarus, an opportunity not only to show oneself, but also to listen to speakers who inspire young creators to new projects.

From art objects to everyday outfits

The student of the Baranovichi State College of Technology and Design Pavel Kozin has quite impressive  background — behind him is the victory at Fashion Mill 2022 and the Grand Prix of the 28th edition of the Admiralty Needle International Festival of Fashion, Art and Design in St. Petersburg, “The new collection called Time Trouble is dedicated to the problem of lack of time. I wanted to remind everyone to appreciate every moment. Time is intangible, so I used light translucent fabrics. Cyclicity is emphasised by shuttlecocks cut in a spiral.”
And here are the images in black, white and pink. Unusual shapes, grotesque shoulder line, voluminous sleeves... In the collection for teenagers, BSU second year student Evelina Isakidis combined the audacity of youth and the elegance of ballet dancers, “All of my items are wearable. It can be integrated into your wardrobe, the main thing is to combine it correctly. It’s easiest with the basics.”
BSU was also represented by Victoria Berezovskaya at the Fashion Mill. This year, the girl transferred to the fashion department, which is very happy event for her. In her dresses from the Negative Effect collection, many schoolgirls would dream of going to graduation. But Victoria explained that her products are rather an art object, “About 95 percent of the images are handmade. Emphasis is made on natural fabrics dyed by hand. I wanted to add embroidery with beads, but did not have time. Maybe I’ll use this idea in future works.”
It was impossible to pass by the riot of neon in the Cyberpunk collection by Victoria Kursakova, who represented the Mogilev Regional Centre of Creativity at the competition for the third time. This year the products are avant-garde, the designer noted, “I wanted to work with the game industry, create an image of a cyborg. I was inspired by the computer game Cyberpunk 2077.”
The models have a lot of reflective elements, flexible neon — in the dark they are coolly highlighted. Many eyelets were used, thanks to which the products turned out to be collapsible: they can be changed to your taste, for example, remove sleeves or length.

Creative symbiosis

Fashion Mill helps young designers to move on, to realise themselves. The driver was a joint project with Kamvol enterprise, which made it possible to create images from Belarusian fabrics. This path was followed by Pavel Kovalevsky from Grodno, who participated in the Fashion Mill for the fifth time. This year he brought the Sesto men’s collection to the competition, “I don’t do anything extravagant: I want my clothes to be worn in everyday life. Basically, the products are made from the fabric of the Belarusian manufacturer Blakit, and all the coloured elements are applied by thermal transfer.”
In general, the competition projects of designers this year are a symbiosis of the conceptual and traditional, an appeal to national history and culture. The audience and the jury highly appreciated the new technologies in the design of clothes and fabrics, the desire for conscious consumption and the search for new creative solutions.
Nadezhda Vasilchenko, Director of the National Centre for Children and Youth Artistic Creativity, is sure that such competitions form the professional skills of the participants, “It’s great that young designers have so many interesting ideas. Often, objects of culture and history of the country become a source of inspiration for them; our national features are reflected in the collections. For the third year we have been promoting Belarusian fabrics, the quality of which we can be proud of.”
Belarusian students and students show a high level of training, because a strong fashion school has been created in the country. The Education Ministry and Bellegprom support young designers on their way. This is very important for the guys, their professional development and further employment. A nice bonus for the best young creators is the opportunity to have an internship at the enterprise and launch the highlights of their collections into production.

By Inna Gorbatenko
photos by belta and Aleksandr Kulevsky