Yesterday evening young designer Anbasja Blanken won the third edition of the 2016 Global Denim Awards organised in The Netherlands and coinciding with the denim fair Kingpins Amsterdam. The award links an emerging designer with a denim mill offering innovative technologies, sustainability and craftsmanship.
Blanken's denim collection, dubbed by members of the jury panel "a breath of fresh air", hid a visually enticing trick: it glowed in the dark.
Curaçao-born Blanken was inspired by an underwater theme and in particular by the beauty of luminscent deep-sea corals. Her inspiration was clear not just from the glowing touches of the fabrics, but also from the consistency, shapes and silhouettes of some of the denim formations, embroideries, and ruffles featured in the collection. The young designer tried indeed to create Haute Couture pieces using a casual workwear fabric.
The competition rules asked participants to create a collection with at least 50% of denim based designs, but Blanken’s included 95% of denim, with a remaining 5% consisting of beads, pearls, and floral embroideries.
Blanken shares the glory of the award with the manufacturer that helped her creating the collection, the Italian mill Industria Tessile del Vomano (ITV) Denim (based in the Abruzzo region).
The company offered her the chance to experiment with this textile and worked with her on laser-cut prints and effects such as recycled ruffles and frayed luminous denim yarns (ITV actually created a denim fabric especially for Blanken that incorporated luminous yarns). This is the second time ITV Denim supports a winning designer, they indeed produced Jonathan Christopher’s collection that went on to win the first edition of the award in 2014.
The jury was impressed with Amy Leverton, denim consultant and Denim Dudes founder, stating: "Collaboration between a young talent and a passionate and innovative mill is an enrichment for the industry."
Anbasja Blanken (1987) started her studies in 2005 with a course in technical fashion at Friesland College in Leeuwarden. At the same time, she interned under Kentroy Yearwood at the Intoxica-jeans label in Amsterdam, where she worked as a design and studio assistant.
In 2009, she graduated with her collection "The Future Generation" that won the people's choice award for best collection and presentation of the year. In the meantime, she started her bachelor's degree at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (HKU) and interned at Viktor & Rolf. She graduated from HKU in 2014 with her collection, "Shakhinah Glory", selected as a finalist for the "Lichting"' G-Star award. Blanken's designs were also featured in a variety of exhibitions, including the Modefabriek and Campaign of Wool. She founded her label – Ala Blanka – this year, showcasing her first collection, consisting in a trouser line, during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam.
Blanken's collection will be shown at the Kingpins shows in New York and Hong Kong, but the Global Denim Awards also boasted another winner, Roosmarijn Koster who worked with the Indian mill Arvind from Ahmedabad. This collaboration won the Best Fabric Award for an innovative textile merging innovation with tradition.
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