Feel the Yarn – 2016

Yarn training experience and design award for future knitwear designers

It’s time for the 7th edition of FEEL THE YARN, one of the fashion world’s most important examples of cooperation between Italian yarn mills and young, international  creative talents.

Consorzio Promozione Filati and Pitti Immagine, and the major Italian yarn mills are promoting the 7th consecutive edition of the competition for aspiring knitwear designers. The contest aims at supporting young international talents who will create original knitted garments, using  and thereby “promoting” the most innovative Italian yarns. Twenty-six students selected from thirteen prestigious fashion-design schools around the world and 22 Italian mills that are showing their 2017-18 fall/winter collections at Pitti Filati (29th June to 1st July 2016) will be involved in FEEL THE YARN this season.

The theme for the competition, coordinated by Ornella Bignami of Elementi Moda is Knitting Time.

Knits follow the rhythm of daily life: the soft time for cuddling. The solid structure of an informal lifestyle. The individuality of a free spirit. The opulence of the elegant hours. Twenty-four hours of pure creativity highlighted by thrilling shades of red and traces of smoky gray. Delicate tones color, the soft fluidity of bulky, protective, embracing, padded knits are the perfect match for fine, sensual, lightweight pieces that cling like a second skin. A natural patina of burnt shades blurs the shot, washed, felted, streaked, recycled crafted-look yarns. We are lighting up bursts of eccentric colors – pure pleasure and fantasy on transparent, bright, glowing, crystalline, multicolored, gauzy, bulky, granular yarns. Deep, dense reds seem to melt into gold and coppery nuances in opulent decorative motifs enriched by an exciting mix of yarns. Bright, matte, fuzzy, bouclé, metallic, velvety.

CELC – Confederazione Europea per il Lino e la Canapa will be participating this year too by providing certified Masters of Linen, 100% Made in Europe linen yarns. The student’s projects will be displayed on mannequins by LA ROSA S.P.A.: with their slim, abstract, contemporary structures they present a vision of this generation’s bodies that reject limitations imposed by names, categories, age and gender.   An extremely qualified panel of fashion professionals will select  the most interesting projects and award the prize to be used for further training and education.  This year, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO will generously present an award to the project that best interprets the beauty of the Italian lifestyle. It is called “Splendour of Life” and will take into account the playful nature of color and the fact that “There is no limit to beauty or the pursuit of perfection”.

Project Participants: BIFT-BEIJING INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY, BUNKA FASHION COLLEGE, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC–Institute of Textiles and Clothing, HOCHSCHULE NIEDERRHEIN-University of Applied Sciences, HOCHSCHULE LUZERN-Design & Kunst, POLITECNICO DI MILANO-Scuola del Design, HOCHSCHULE TRIER, LIMERICK INSTITUTE, LAHTI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES-INSTITUTE OF DESIGN AND FINE ARTS, ACCADEMIA DI COSTUME E MODA, POLIMODA, KINGSTON UNIVERSITY.   The

Yarn Mills: ALPES MANIFATTURA FILATI, BOTTO GIUSEPPE, FILATI BE.MI.VA., FILATI BIAGIOLI MODESTO, FILATI DI.VE’, CARIAGGI LANIFICIO S.p.A., E.MIROGLIO, FILITALY-LAB, FILMAR, FILPUCCI, GI.TI.BI. FILATI, MANIFATTURA IGEA, ILARIA MANIFATTURA LANE, INDUSTRIA ITALIANA FILATI, LANIFICIO DELL’OLIVO, LINSIEME FILATI, MANIFATTURA SESIA, PECCI FILATI, PINORI FILATI, TOLLEGNO 1900, TOSCANO FILATI, ZEGNA BARUFFA LANE BORGOSESIA. 

Curator: Ornella Bignami, Elementi Moda

el.moda@elementimoda.it – Tel. +39 02 55181645