On May 26, a sketch round of the annual competition New Names Belarus Fashion Week took place in Minsk. The organizers of the contest – public organization «Belarusian Chamber of Fashion» and the agency «Open Podium».

Every year the competition attracts a lot of attention of young designers from all over Belarus. Last year, the winner of the competition was Daria Gayduk, who showed the jury and the guests of the show the collection of FRIDA. Moreover, the result of last season was a unique case, since the opinion of the viewers who participated in the online voting coincided with the opinion of professionals.

The winner of the current season of the competition will receive 1000 BYN for the creation of a collection, which he will present at the most authoritative fashion event in the countryBelarus Fashion Weekand is widely known as a designer who has received support fromBelarusian Fashion Chamber. In addition, a special gift for one of the winners of the competition was prepared by the project of conscious fashionPEREODEVALKA free placement in the showroom and participation in the festival's markets throughout the year.

The theme of the current competition is SUSTAINABLE FASHION clothing, shoes and accessories that are manufactured, sold and used in the most conscious way from an ecological and socio-economic point of view. The jury of the competition includes:

• Yanina Goncharova Founder and head of Belarus Fashion Week, Chairman of the Association of Designers "Belarusian Chamber of Fashion";
• Polina Voronova – designer of eco-friendly brand Historia Naturalis;
• Yulia Lazareva Founder of the conscious fashion project PEREODEVALKA;
• Olga Barabanshchikova owner and designer of the brand Candy Lady, animal rights activist;
• Martin Roberts – Head of the international project for the promotion of fashion pioneers Fashion Scout (London).

The sketch round of the competition was attended by both novice designers-students of specialized professional institutions, and established authors and stylists, as well as all those who want to connect themselves with the fashion world. Therefore, the participants had a very different level of training and presented various creative developments - from an oral presentation of an idea to a demonstration of ready-made, personally designed fabrics. At the same time, everyone got a unique opportunity to talk to the jury members alone and hear opinions, recommendations and suggestions about their work. This is an invaluable experience for aspiring figures of the fashion industry.

After the successful presentation of the sketches , they continued their participation in the competition: Alina Evchenko Ksenia Gest Valeria Kovaleva, Angelina Volchenko Margarita Zhuk Sofia Yakus Victoria Zhorova Alexandra Evtukhovich Alexandra Marchenko Natalia Zenevich Natalia Dosko Valentina Neborskaya Oleg Gorchanin.

The idea of New Names Belarus Fashion Week is to find young and talented designers every year, whether they are senior students of specialized institutions or freelance artists who are in search, and introduce them to a wide audience. As a rule, we work with a partner company, but this year there is no such opportunity, which does not prevent our public organization from holding a competition, which helps to ignite fashion stars. We have limited the participants to a single theme "Clothes created consciously". Each participant understood this topic in his own way and we saw collections that were different in idea and implementation. Someone was inspired by his dog Lola, who lives in Serebryanka and the slogan "if you don't love yourself, you don't love nature", and for someone the theme of preserving nature from garbage. We are pleased to see how the winners of the contest continue their independent successful work and make their personal contribution to the development of the image of modern Belarusian fashion.

Yanina Goncharova, Head of the Belarusian Chamber of Fashion, organizer of the contest

Photos: provided by the organizers