What a magnificent show! The two-day FashionTEX event has come to an end. Amidst great media interest, several hundred guests celebrated the promising new generation of fashion designers with star designer Thomas Rath at the ‘fabrik Chemnitz’. From among the 24 international students from eleven European fashion universities, the six-member jury selected Vincent Röse as the winner of the European sponsorship award ‘Next Generation – Fashion 2025’. The prize secures him an internship with the Chemnitz-based fashion manufacturer Bruno Banani. Second prize went to Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. She will receive a one-year licence for the international 3D fashion software CLO.

The award winners

23-year-old Vincent Röse is in his fifth semester of fashion design studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Schneeberg and works at the interface of technology, functionality and aesthetics. With his project ‘GORE LUX’, he impressed the jury with a hybrid design that blurs the boundaries between digital and physical fashion: a waterproof bomber jacket that can be transformed into an avant-garde coat using folding techniques.

The project ‘I Don’t Know Who I Am, but I Have a Six-Pack’ by Joanne-Heleene Sõrmus, a second-year master’s student at the Estonian Academy of Arts, explores the intersections between the body, technology and materials research. The title of her creation reflects a self-deprecating yet sincere search for identity – in a culture characterised by discipline, digital tools and physical transformation.

Photos: Michael Schmidt