Sustainable designs made with Kopenhagen Fur pelts win prestigious design contest in Japan
Two outstanding new fur designs created with Kopenhagen Fur Mink and inspired by art, sustainability, and the combination of various materials were rewarded at the prestigious JFA design contest in Japan last month.
It’s not easy to stand out as one of 2,046 design sketches made by students from 38 top fashion schools in Japan.
Just 16 garments made it to the catwalk of the JFA design contest at Jiji-Tsushin Hall in Tokyo. From there, of the six winning designs, two awards went to students who used Kopenhagen Fur pelts with support from frequent auction customer Nemo Furs, Kanon Hayata from Osaka Bunka Fashion College and Koki Motomura from Mode Gakuen.
“By sponsoring this contest, we hoped to inspire young designers all over the world to use fur in their future designs, and we are impressive by the work of the Japanese Fur Association,” says International Sales Manager Jesper Poulsen.
“Every year during the months leading up to the contest they host seminars all over Japan introducing students to using fur and encouraging them to sign up for the competition,” he says.
JFA is the only Japanese design competition based on working with real, high-quality fur, a total of 40,543 design sketches have been sent to the jury consisting of famous Japanese designers, journalists, and stylists since the contest’s start 17 years ago.
“It’s an unusually high number of submissions compared to other competitions, making JFA an ideal way for Kopenhagen Fur to inform future designers working with fur about our high quality, sustainable material,” says Jesper Poulsen.
He is excited to welcome the two winning students to Copenhagen in August, as they both won a trip to Kopenhagen Studio along with their diplomas and money prizes.
“During the weeklong workshop in our studio in Copenhagen they will work closely together with our furriers and other upcoming designers from all over the world. They will get a chance to dive further into the techniques used when working with fur and they will learn how to combine different kinds of fur with other materials,” says Jesper Poulsen.