Finalists of H&M Design awards 2013 announced

The winner will receive a prize of €50,000, and the chance to show his or her collection at Mercedes-Benz Stockholm Fashion Week on January 29, when the winning name will be revealed. The winner will also develop selected pieces from his or her collection to be sold in selected H&M stores this autumn.

Members of this year’s grand jury are: Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s Head of Design; fashion designer Jonathan Saunders; editor-at-large of style.com Tim Blanks; photographer Sølve Sundsbø; stylist Leith Clark; blogger and photographer Hanneli Mustaparta; fashion journalist Kristopher Arden Houser and H&M’s Creative Advisor Margareta van den Bosch.

Information on all the finalists can be found at designaward2013.hm.com, where voting for this year’s People’s Prize will also open on January 16. The People’s Prize winner will win the chance of a month’s internship at Jonathan Saunders in London.

“I’m so excited by the finalists of this year’s H&M Design Award. The standard of entry was so high, with such creativity, energy and attitude. We started the H&M Design Award to help move fashion forward, and to celebrate and support graduates as they begin their careers. I can’t wait to see what all of our finalists will do in the future,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s Head of Design.

THE FINALISTS

ALBA PRAT (Germany): 31-year-old Alba from Barcelona has lived in Berlin for seven years, where she studied at the Universität der Künste. Her collection “syn chron” uses the visualisation of sound phenomena, basing her prints on two different visualised recordings of her own heartbeat.

DANIELA SALAZAR RODRIGUEZ (France): Originally from Venezuela, 27-year-old Daniela Salazar Rodriguez has studied in Paris since 2007. Her collection, designed at L’Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, mixes architectural modernity with Japanese and Korean historical costume.

ELEONORA BRUNO (Italy): Eleonora Bruno, who studied at Polimoda in her native Florence, is a 25-year-old who has expanded her work beyond hats to include full looks. Her collection, “Le Vie De Madame Roy”, creates imagined outfits for a woman in Paris.

ERIK LITZÉN (Sweden): Stockholm native 26-year-old Erik Litzén, who studied at the city’s Beckmans College of Design, is interested in plays with gender. His collection, “P-Androgeny”, uses draping and volume to create tailoring that goes beyond the normal bounds of menswear.