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