The future of knitwear in the latest edition of the Loro Piana Design Award And how the winners managed to create 'cashmere armour'

The fashion industry has always exerted a proverbial charm on students who choose a fashion institute each year in hopes of realizing their dreams in the sector. However, this dream is not always easily achievable: amidst intense competition, rising inflation, and geopolitical tensions disturbing the global economy, finding one's path in the fashion industry is not always straightforward. But this is where awards like the Loro Piana Design Award come into play, an initiative launched by the brand for the first time in 2016 and an international competition aimed at allowing tomorrow's designers to best express their creativity through Loro Piana's iconic yarns. The goal is to safeguard and enhance savoir-faire, transmitting to new generations a passion for craftsmanship excellence. This achievement was successfully reached in the case of the winning students Pierre Sauvageot and Björn Backes from École Duperré, one of the eight schools invited to give their interpretation of Loro Piana's iconic yarn.

All students from the eight participating schools gave extremely personal interpretations of the theme: on one hand, students from Accademia Costume e Moda combined wool and linen with the goal of "pushing the limits and textures of traditional yarns by experimenting with crochet horse stitch and foil prints". At L'Institut français de la mode, the project explored the link between fashion and nature, in a quest that could be described as almost spiritual: "many of our designs take circular forms, making them a kind of meditation for us". The brand's yarns were developed through natural dyes, elaborating dreamcatchers and bedding sets. Creative ideas that have skillfully explored Loro Piana's centuries-old heritage, combining craftsmanship, technical skills, and exceptional materials to produce an icon of future knitwear. Each piece created by the participating students was made with the extraordinary yarns Loro Piana - Cashmere 2/27, Coarsehair, Supercashmere, Royal, Wish®, Clan®, Sopravisso, and Equilibrio - expertly combining technological innovation, functionality, and unparalleled texture quality.