Italian know-how on fashion meets the millennial history of Mesopotamia – the cradle of civilization – and the Anatolian textile tradition, in an Italian-Turkish culture and design project; Enheduanna FWC Contest.

• Italian Fashion Meets Mesopotamian Woman.
• The outfits by 18 designers showcased on a spectacular catwalk show at the Karanlik Kanyon.
• The winner will be awarded with a scholarship in Textile Design at the Accademia di Belle Arti Aldo Galli in Como – IED network.

It is Enheduanna FWC – Fashion Women Culture, a creative contest launched by IED – Istituto Europeo di Design (largest Higher Education Network in the creative field to have maintained a global outlook and a deeply Italian cultural matrix, since 1966) as part of the larger project organized and curated by ADDU Tasarim (All-in Design & Development Union) Director, Dr. Pınar Sipahi, Professor, with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute of Istanbul, Turkey Design Council, Bahçeşehir University, Studio Fırat Neziroğlu and Taypa Tekstil.

It’s this Italian know-how in design and fashion, whose values IED embodies, that guided the creativity of the 18 Turkish students protagonists of the contest, coming from different schools and universities and selected on the basis of a call launched by Istituto Europeo di Design. Mentored by Giovanni Ottonello, IED Art Director, and by lecturer Francis Venneri, the young creatives worked on the conception and production of 18 outfits designed for 12 Turkish women and inspired by Mesopotamian culture, clothing and traditions, using local fabrics from more than 30 geographical areas of Türkiye. The results were presented in a fashion show held in a striking natural scenic setting, the Karanlik Kanyon (Karanlik Canyon).

The Inspirations for Enheduanna

The clothes created focuses on the Mesopotamian woman with her aesthetic codes, handed down through sculptures, bas-reliefs and archaeological finds. The contest was for the participants an extraordinary opportunity to look at their own past and traditions, combining them with the know-how of another country, Italy, to find in a dress, an embroidery, a fabric, a shape, the synthesis between these two apparently distant worlds. The common thread was a basic question: what is the value of Made in Italy today in the perception of a group of talented Turkish creatives.

The participants tackled Made in Italy by also searching the history of Italian fashion to find elements that could be traced back to internationally known brands: features such as exaggerated femininity or simple 1960s cuts, floral prints and decorations, the use of denim and dyed fabric left free to cover the body in a moulage effect, up to the world-famous theatrical costume could be recognized in the clothes created.

The collaboration with Turkish weaving mills, especially Taypa Tekstil, was crucial: the production of the clothes designed by the 18 finalists was carried out at the Tayeks Design Center, which supports innovative and creative production processes. Designers were trained on the use of fabrics by Fırat Neziroğlu, designer, founder of the Anatolian Textile Network and weaving artist, who was a member of the contest jury along with Özlem Erkan, designer, and Zeynep Öcal Özcan, trainer.

On May 28 there’ll be the designation of the winner, who will be rewarded with a two-week intensive training course on Textile Design, scheduled in July at the Accademia di Belle Arti Aldo Galli in Como – part of the IED network, which has 11 locations in Italy, Spain and Brazil. In addition, the top two winning designers will be offered summer internship opportunities as part of the Taypa Textile Special Award.

IED Istituto Europeo di Design
www.ied.edu | @ied_official

IED Istituto Europeo di Design is a 100% Made in Italy international network of excellence, operating in the fields of training and research, in the disciplines of Design, Fashion, Visual Communication and Management. IED is an evolving educational system with the mission to offer young creatives a thorough training – both theoretical and practical – and hand them the ‘Design Knowledge and Mindset’ that will accompany them throughout their lives.

All images courtesy of IED Istituto Europeo di Design.

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