ІV. NEW GENERATION OF DESIGNERS

The great hope of the Bulgarian fashion are the new generations of designers - the ones who study the particulars of this sophisticated craft not only in Bulgaria but abroad as well: with the elite fashion colleges, institutions and academies. Receiving thorough knowledge, having practices with renowned designers and getting charged with most prospective technological skills, they are not different from any of their peers from other countries and one day (let us hope that it will come as soon as possible) they will glorify the name of Bulgaria in the Sancta Sanctotum of the world style - the haute couture zone. Which are some of the most important manifestations of the young creators of clothes, of the young fashion creators in the past 2006?

Academy Gallery at the National Academy of Art turned to be narrow for all those willing to congratulate the future hopes of the Bulgarian fashion design. In their final graduation fashion show, the fashion students of class 2006 of the National Academy of Art got to the bottom of the Vanity topic in its various nuances. Here are some of concepts: Vassilen Milkov, whose topic was Red Carpet sees vanity as high life turmoil. According to Denitsa Bakurdjieva, whose topic was Elegance in Chains, demonstrates that being a slave to clothes and accessories the woman is unhappy in her perfectionism. Troyan Plamenov - by the topic of the Crazy King he defends the idea that fashion reflects the socium. Irina Rahova, whose topic was She, discuses the garment as a part of the definition of vanity, synthesized in one sentence. Iva Plavcheva, topic Too Cool for School, understands vanity as a suggestion of foreign identity and influence of media. Interesting and original solutions were offered also by Vassil Kostadinov, Vasko Kouzmanovski, Elena Vangelovska, Elissaveta Katerinova, Metodi Pendov and Polina Koubratova.

The lecturers' team of the fashion designers' class of the National Academy of Art included Prof. Gredi Assa, Ass. Prof. Maya Bogdanova, Ass. Prof. Dr. Lubomir Stoykov, Prof. Panayot Panayotov, Dr. Yana Kostadinova, Anna Avramova, Sonya Kovacheva, architect Ralitsa Koeva. Katerina Tsaneva was the course manager. Impressed by the talent of the young designers, the owners of Nedelya (Sunday) chain of confectioneries, Radoslava and Georgi Minchev, started an open tender among the students of National Art Academy for the preparation of a complete project for the design of their employees' uniforms. The team of Nedelya admired the creativity of the young people. "We decided to give a chance to the students to express themselves by offering projects for uniforms of our employees. We rely on the fresh ideas and their emancipated style", said Mr. Georgi Minchev, owner of Nedelya confectioneries.

Good words should be said about other university graduates in fashion design. The manifestations of the graduates in fashion from the New Bulgarian University during the BGate Balkan Gate Apparel and Textile Exhibition, organized by the Bulgarian Association of Apparel and Textile Producers and Exporters in the beginning of October at InterExpo Centre. Their collections, combined under the title Somewhere There, showed a serious creative charge, courage and readiness for experiment. What has happened with the new generation of designers who create both in Bulgaria and abroad?

The realization of two of the scholarship holders of Ot Igla Do Konets (From Needle to Thread) - Dessislava Stoycheva (in Austria and Switzerland) and Stanislav Petrov (in Italy) continued successfully. The scholarship of another scholarship holder of ours, the young Bulgarian designer Maria Doichinova, who for several months assisted to world famous designers in London was also a triumph. First she assisted in the preparation of the autumn-winter 2006-2007 collection of Roland Mouret - a French stylist based in the capital of Great Britain. After that she was accepted as a practitioner in the team of one of the most prominent contemporary British avant-gardists Hussein Chalayan. The final result was the inclusion of a design of Maria Doichinova in his fashion show in Paris this year. The development of Maria's talent has been mentioned several times in the Almanac and because of this we will only remind here that she graduated fashion design with the Applied Art Academy in Vienna and her diploma work Gothic Andalou, inspired by the film Andalusian Dog of Salvator Dali and Luis Bunuel, was given the highest grade by the jury as well as including by the world's magazine Vogue.

For several months the design of accessories of the famous fashion house Paco Rabanne was in the hands of Ina Assa. The young designer is a graduate of the elite fashion college Es Mode Internationale (Paris). She is a daughter of the famous Bulgarian painter Gredi Assa, but he has not pre-determined her interest in fashion. The plans of her parents were related to architecture, however from the age of five, Ina has been adamant - fashion, fashion and again fashion. Her childhood dream came true three years ago, when she was enrolled in the famous design school, and last year she received the stunning invitation to work at the accessories studio of Paco Rabanne. The offer has come from Amelia Tenniere Boucheau, who is the head of this studio and a teacher of Ina at the college. Ina's very first projects are admired by Paco Rabanne's Chief Designer Patrick Robinson, who instantly approved all sketches of the new assistant. In the ladies' collection of the fashion house for spring-summer 2006, the glasses and part of the shoes and bags have been designed by Ina Assa. Currently, the young designer is working on projects for shoe design - autumn-winter 2007 2008 trends, at the order of prominent fashion house Francesco Smalto (Paris).

The young masters of the photographic lens also showed a mark of qualitative development. Dozens of photographers attracted by the fashion and style topics tried their skills and chances in the photography competition Italian Fashion and Lifestyle in Bulgaria. The competition was under the patronage of the Italian Ambassador to Bulgaria, His Excellency Giovan Battista Campagnola. The event took place within the frames of the Italian Festival in Bulgaria and its main organizer was the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade. A joint Bulgarian-Italian jury of experts, chaired by Ivo Hadjimishev, voted the winners: Ivo Nikolov (1st), Vesselin Atanassov (2nd) and Nikolai Bozakov (3rd). They participated in a summer course of digital photography, fashion and interior design at the New Academy of Fine Arts - Milan. An important detail, accompanying the competition, was the circumstance that the works of the 30 best photographers, who participated in the competition, were exhibited in the Andrey Nikolov gallery of the Red House. The event's climax was the special lecture on a New Design Glossary, delivered in the overcrowded gallery by Alessandro Guerriero, President of the New Academy of Fine Arts and representative of Alchimia post avant-garde Italian design.