Press Release: Istituto Marangoni Miami x Halston Design Challenge
Istituto Marangoni Miami (IMM) is pleased to announce its latest design challenge with world-renowned fashion house Halston. ‘With Love Halston,’ a nonprofit organization led by Lesley Frowick (Halston’s niece), will partner with the prestigious school to launch the Halston Challenge, a competition offering fashion design students the opportunity to design clothing inspired by Halston by using sustainable Ultrasuede, the fabric popularized in the 1970s by founder and designer Roy Halston himself.
The fashion school’s latest collaboration offers students the unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience with a luxury brand. This initiative aims to educate rising designers on the genius of Halston, a pioneer of minimalist, clean designs. Halston’s signature fabrics, including the iconic Ultrasuede, will be the focus of the competition. Students will have the chance to create looks inspired by Halston’s relaxed urban lifestyle aesthetic for American women. The contest will occur in two rounds, with competing students designing looks following five-point criteria. Contest judges, a panel of approximately seven to eight senior executives from Halston, will bring their expertise and discerning eye to the judging process.
For round one, students will create inspiration boards, paper sketches with fabric swatches, front, and back view flats, and fashion illustration sketches that might work as a current advertising page for Halston. Students will work under the guidance of Massimo Casagrande, project leader, IMM Dean, and Director of Education.
The round one deadline is June 10, 2022, when eight finalists will be selected to proceed to the next round, while the round two deadline is August 19, 2022. Contest participants selected for round two will be asked to develop a finalized garment based on their capsule collection vision.
Three finalists will be revealed on November 28, 2022. These talented individuals will not only receive special scholarships but also the opportunity to have their fashion illustrations published in FIDA: The Fashion Arts & Illustration Magazine, a prestigious platform for showcasing their work. All eight selected fashion design finalists will exhibit their work during Art Basel Miami 2022, a high-profile event that could potentially launch their careers in the fashion industry.
“It is an honor for me to announce this partnership between Istituto Marangoni Miami and Halston, an iconic label that was ahead of its time and remains a beacon of signature American style,” said Istituto Marangoni Miami’s President, Hakan Baykam, “the introduction of Ultrasuede to the market revolutionized the way consumers viewed and bought sportswear in the 1970s. This competition challenges young designers to consider the importance of fabrics in their designs when sustainability and wearability must be in sync.”
