Always a champion of fresh, raw and untapped fashion talents, retail giant Bench heralds a new wave of potential with the next chapter of Bench Design Awards, its highly successful nationwide creative talent search. Culminating in a runway show, as well as a subsequent chance to show in Japan, this could very well be your chance to be the next big thing in fashion.
Related: The Youth is Electrified at Bench Fashion Week Day Two
One of the most anticipated segments of last year’s Bench Fashion Week was the breakthrough search of the local retail brand, Bench Design Awards. Scouring the nation for talents with unbridled creativity and distinct points-of-view, Bench rounded up a pool of untapped skill and potential that culminated in a grand showing of fashion design. With bated breath, each of the finalists presented their vibrant collections, which ranged from the coming together of nostalgia and avante-garde, the collision of whimsy and ease, as well as an intrusion of hyper-sexualized statements on overextended proportions. As the applause from each segment mellowed out to tempered oohs and aahhhs, it became very clear—the future of fashion was alive and well.
Emerging as the winners from this fresh inaugural set, designers Jaggy Glarino, Jenni Contreras and RJ Santos of Randolf received trainings in cooperation with the ministry of economy, trade and industry of japan and the overseas human resources and the Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships , as well as the opportunity to show their collections in Tokyo, Japan. More than that, however, the three spirited designers gained a trove of experiences and lessons that not only helped their aesthetics, but with their young brands well. Needless to say, it was (and still is) onwards and upwards for these three.
This year, Bench is giving you the chance to live your dreams just as Jaggy Glarino, Jenni Contreras and RJ Santos have as they open their gates once more for a new edition of Bench Design Awards. The nationwide search aims to find the next big things in Filipino fashion and design and if you are an aspiring creative in the field, this could be your chance to make it big in the Philippines, Japan and heck, the world.
Applications are now open in search of 10 designers who will be given the opportunity to show their collections at Bench Fashion Week in September 2018. From this set of 10, the top 3 finalists will be sent to Japan in October to present alongside Bench during Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo S/S 2019.
Are you ready to take your design career to the next level?
The full mechanics, along with the qualifications are up on the Bench Design Awards website, but the most important date to remember is June 1, 2018, which is the deadline to submit entries. Each entry required a collection description or brand story through words or photos, a collection for S/S ’19, which includes a maximum of 20 images of sketches, lookbooks, image and mood boards, photos, collages, movies or any visual/digital representation of your work or design aesthetic.
So, what are you waiting for? Get to it and start designing your future. Who knows, this could very well be your chance to hit the big time.