Next year, the International H&M Design Awards Competition will be open to students from Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons the New School for Design. Launched in 2012, the annual competition encourages and support young fashion design graduates as they embark on their careers.
To celebrate the US participation in this prestigious design contest, H&M will sell the 2013 winning collection by Minju Kim in select US stores and at Opening Ceremony.
The winner of the H&M Design Award 2013, Minju Kim, a 27 year-old graduate from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, was selected by a jury of international fashion experts consisting of H&M’s Creative Head of Design Ann-Sofie Johansson, designer Jonathan Saunders, editor-at-large Tim Blanks, blogger and photographer Hanneli Mustaparta, fashion journalist Kristopher Arden-Houser, stylist Leith Clark, photographer Sølve Sundsbø and H&M’s creative advisor Margareta van den Bosch.
As part of her overall prize, nine women’s pieces and two accessories have been developed with the H&M design team.
The collection will be available from October 17 at selected H&M stores in Sweden, Denmark, UK, Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and the US. It will also be available at Opening Ceremony in New York, Los Angeles and London, marking the first time an H&M collection will be sold at Opening Ceremony stores in the US.
Minju’s pieces for H&M bring the dream world of Manga to life with unique cuts and clever fabric combinations. A collarless coat in vivid yellow, a short jacket in two contrasting jacquards or a cape made of black wool creates a sweet rounded silhouette.
The textured heavy knit, links the sleeves to the body with cartoonish curves, while a neoprene-fronted sweatshirt is printed with Manga-inspired images drawn by Minju herself. A paneled minidress mixes matte with shine, while jacquard trousers keep their structured shape.
To complete the look there’s a black and white wedge platform lace-up and a characterful turquoise leather collar.
Minju is a designer from South Korea who graduated in spring 2013 from the final Masters year at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. She won the H&M Design Award 2013 with her collection titled “Dear My Friend”, inspired by Japanese Manga cartoonist Junji Ito, and received a €50,000 prize, a show at the Mercedes-Benz Stockholm Fashion Week in January 2013 and the chance to develop pieces from her collection with H&M.
