IFM students win the Loro Piana Knit Design Award 2022

Institut Français de la Mode’s students, Po-Chieh Chiu and Shanon Poupard, were the winners of the Knit Design Award 2022, an international design competition dedicated to students, organised by the Loro Piana brand.

Students from six fashion and design schools, including North Carolina State University, Institut Français de la Mode, Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, Politecnico di Milano, Shenkar College in Tel Aviv and Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, were invited to reinterpret an emblematic Loro Piana jacket called the Traveller Jacket. Their task was to create a personal version with the emblematic yarns of Loro Piana.

On this occasion, the young designers had the opportunity to discover the Maison de Couture and learn about the materials while observing and collaborating with the research and development team. In addition to participating in guided tours of knitting workshops and discovering the entire production process up close.

The finalist projects were showcased on June 21 during a special event at Loro Piana's new headquarters, the Palazzo Cortile della Seta, in Milan. Students presented their projects to a jury of experts made up of a few internal representatives, including Damien Bertrand, as well as personalities such as Sara Sozzani Maino, a special projects manager for Vogue Italy, Beka Gvishiani, founder of Stylenotcom, Chet Lo, a knitwear designer, and Letizia Schätzinger, a tiktoker and content creator.

The winners were Po-Chieh Chiu and Shanon Poupard from the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris. In addition to the Loro Piana Knit Design Award 2022, the duo received a work contract for the first time. The two students will therefore have the opportunity to create their revisited version of the Traveller jacket in Loro Piana's knitting workshop and experience all the stages that lead to the creation of a garment.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.fr, and it was translated into English by Andrea Byrne.