Valencia is World Design Capital 2022. In May, three Valencian designers were introduced to students at International Fashion Academy in Paris (full report here). In November, the beautiful Quai de la Marne campus hosted three more creative visionaries. This time, they were all emerging creators with debut collections at the latest edition of CLEC Fashion Festival. Welcome Alina Firtas of Protezka, Laura Bonhome of Elebonhome, and Pablo Carcasona of Modistilla!
These young brands represented three tracks from the CLEC schedule: Mainstage, Emergent, Fashion for Peace.
Pablo Carcasona & Modistilla appeared on the official défilé roster alongside the Spanish industry stalwarts like Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and Post-Paris favorites Visori and Yvan Andreu. It was a wild rollercoaster ride with drag queens on the runway, drag queens in the audience, and drag ancestors looking proudly up and down on all the rainbow children and their bright looks.
Laura Bonhome & Elebonhome participated in the group show for up-and-coming talent from the region. Her work explores emotional complexity of our response(s) to social issues like domestic violence. The answers come in the shape of beautiful clothes. While the burnt orange pantsuit honors classic tailoring, its black net accessory turns it into a fashion statement!
Alina Firtas & Protezka were part of the Ukrainian designer showcase which opened the festival. It was a poignant example of fashion diplomacy and its ability to re-engage the people on issues that matter in moments of activist/outrage fatigue. Her aesthetic was a post-punk mix of rebellion and upcycling. Spray-pained manifesto “I made it myself” fits our troubled zeitgeist.
During the class, the students coordinated a photoshoot, an exhibition, and designer interviews. You can discover each of them independently (complete with respective CLEC collection reviews) here:
The meta-future of fashion begins in an interconnected classroom. “This approach to learning gives us access to insights from ground-level designers. Is relevant to us because we too are emerging into our careers in the industry,” noted an MBA candidate Sanskriti Sharma. Early peer connections can last a lifetime and help shape careers along the way. It was great to introduce more rising Made in Spain stars to the next generation of global style storytellers studying in Paris. I look forward to strengthening the Spanish-French creative bonds in 2023 and beyond.
Gracias. Merci. Thank you. Onward, Alexey
P.S. Thank you to the fabulous IFA team Jean-Baptiste Andreani, Albane Forestier, and Ho-Thu Nguyen as well as the 2022 Global Fashion Media Management MBA cohort: Sanskriti Sharma, Kaushik Pai, Ginevra Massari, Patricija Eglite, and Sarah-Jane Deeb.
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Post-Paris Fashion 
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