Global Denim Awards 2016 goes to Anbasja Blanken & ITV Denim

Amsterdam - Dutch designer Anbasja Blanken has been crowned the best designer of the 2016 Global Awards, together with partnering denim mill ITV Denim. The young designer was named the victor from a group of 11 emerging designers who were paired with 11 established denim mills Wednesday night during the award ceremony third annual edition.

As the winner of the 2016 Global Denim Awards, Blanken was given cash prize of 10,000 euros. Her winning collection will also go on display at Kingpins shows in New York, Hong Kong as well as during Amsterdam Denim Days 2017. In addition to Blanken winning the award for best collection, Indian mill Arvind was given the Honorary Best Fabric Award for weaving the most innovative denim fabric.

The Global Denim Awards 2016 challenged the 11 designers and mills to create a capsule collection which showcased the collaborators’ combined craftsmanship, original designs, and denim innovation. The collections were then judged by an international jury of denim industry experts which included denim trend forecast Amy Leverton, the designer/stylist duo Art Comes First, trendhunter and self-confessed denim junkie Kelly Harrington, and the global sales director of Scotch & Soda Alex Jaspers.

“My concept was about the deep sea, and more specifically coral, the ‘flowers of the sea’,” said Blanken on the inspiration behind her winning collection. “Some coral’s colours alternate when the light changes. It can even be luminescent. [So I asked] what if my denim pieces produced light themselves?” In order to honour the designers vision, ITV Denim took up the challenge of creating glow in the dark denim fabric, which undoubtedly helped the young designer win the award. “It was not easy, but we found a way of putting the luminescence into our yarn,” said Barbara Gnutti, Export Manager at ITV Denim.

“To us as a jury, innovation is not only a way of creating new technologies, but it’s also looking back and realising that if we lose the past, we’ll lose it forever,” said Leverton on Arvind winning fabric. “By conserving the past, we are nurturing the future. Arvind supports these villages and its inhabitants to continue creating this traditional denim. Economically that does not make sense. But from a sustainability point of view, it’s invaluable. That’s why the Fabric Award also goes to the mill’s community, not to Arvind alone.”

The Global Denim Awards was first initiated and organised by HTNK, Kingpins Show and House of Denim in 2014. Since then it has nearly double in participants and currently coincides with the fall edition of the Kingpins show in Amsterdam.

Photos: Global Denim Awards