Contest seeks rising stars

Contest seeks rising stars

A longtime sponsor of major fashion events worldwide, such as the
fashion weeks in New York and Australia, Mercedes-Benz Asia
Fashion Award (MBAFA) is now looking for the next big name in
Indonesian fashion.

The Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award-Indonesia 2004 is aimed
at finding representatives to participate in the region-wide
event, as Indonesia does not currently have a similar level
national fashion competition.

Two winners from the national event will represent the country
in the MBAFA 2005 in Singapore.

The first MBAFA held in April set out to find new, innovative
designers of ready-to-wear from all over Asia. There were 12
young designers from six Asian countries: Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Korea.

The winner was Singaporean Sven Tan who received US$10,000
cash, an opportunity to present his works at Mercedes Australian
Fashion Week 2004 and a month-long study tour in Milan.

The study tour includes a workshop with Giorgio Armani, and an
internship with DaimlerChrysler Advanced Design in Como, Italy.

Indonesia was represented by Rusly Tjohnardi, whose
participation was based on the recommendation of a fashion design
organization.

Participants for MBAFA Indonesia 2004 must be aged between 25
and 34 years old; have at least two years experience in the
fashion industry, or at least one commercial collection to their
name; must not have worked under one label for five years or
more, and have never participated in MBAFA.

Interested participants can sign up by enclosing a CV, a
minimum of six design sketches, sample of materials, storyboard
that visualizes the theme or the concept, photos of their latest
collection and a reference letter from their current employer.

There will be two judging stages. The first one will be in
August where 20 selected applicants will be invited to Jakarta to
go through the judging process.

Eight finalists will be chosen, who will be given
approximately five weeks to produce 10 ready-to-wear items to be
presented in October.

The final night on Oct. 8 will be part of the Mercedes-Benz
Fashion Festival, a 10-day fashion festival starting on Oct. 1.

Aside from participating in the Singapore event, the winners
will each receive Rp 10 million in cash.

For more information on the competition, contact the committee
of MBAFA-Indonesia 2004 at tel. (021) 7232383 or fax. (021)
7232407.

-- Hera Diani