Sicilian designer Salvatore
Piccione has won the tenth edition of fashion talent-scouting
competition Who Is On Next?, co-sponsored by Vogue Italia and
the organizers of Rome's bi-annual haute couture shows AltaRoma.
The designer behind edgy brand Piccione.Piccione has
previously worked with Mary Katrantzou for Swarovski, Topshop,
and Longchamp, and has freelanced for leading French brand
Céline.
The designer, who describes his style as "dynamic, colorful
and feminine", currently works for London-based brand Hobbs as
well as for the label he created in Milan in 2012.
He won the sought-after prize awarded annually to
up-and-coming international talents with a capsule collection of
clothes intricately embroidered with flowers in a colorful
palette.
"It was a difficult decision, as the quality of competitors
has increased," Vogue Italia Editor-in-Chief Franca Sozzani said
Monday.
The jury who picked the winner included former
International Herald Tribune fashion journalist Suzy Menkes, who
now works as an international fashion editor for Condé Nast,
Daniela Agnelli, fashion director of the Telegraph magazine, and
Beppe Angiolini, president of the Italian chamber of fashion
buyers.
Israeli designer Daizy Shely won a special jury mention.
The nine finalists included Marianna Cimini and jewelry
designer Caterina Zangradi.
The competition has launched a number of Italian talents.
Among them are Stella Jean, who has caught the attention of
the international fashion crowd with her unique mix of African
wax prints and Western staples like natty Oxford shirts, and
Marco De Vincenzo who has been showing his ready-to-wear label
in Milan since 2009.
French luxury group LVMH announced earlier this year it was
buying a minority stake in his fashion brand.
Previous winners also include Fabio Quaranta, who debuted a
unisex spring-summer 2015 collection during the AltaRoma event,
which wraps up on Wednesday.
The Roman designer drew inspiration from a number of top
players in art, music and literature over the past five decades
- including George Harrison - to design classic clothes with a
quirky work-wear twist, like the oversized jackets and shirts
inspired by factory workers' uniforms in the 1940s.
The classic jacket-with-shirt combo was often mixed with
funky waistcoats with big pockets designed for both men and
women.
Another rising star in Rome who showcased her fall 2014
collection Monday was Sabrina Persechino, an
architect-turned-fashion designer, whose sculpted clothes were
inspired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Persechino dipped into the creative process behind Frank
Lloyd Wright's projects to create feminine silhouettes
replicating the museum's inverted-ziggurat design as well as the
precious Nautilus seashell.
Simplicity and complexity played one another in stunning
silhouettes enveloping the body, enhanced by precious duchesse,
mikado, shantung, cady and chiffon silks, as well as laser-cut
leather, in the seashell's natural colors - dark red, light
pink, black and white.
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