The winning outfit, L'art modern , stood out from the more than twenty ensembles for its clarity and topical appeal. The Finnish Fair Foundation will be awarding the prize of FIM 30,000 to the Young Designer of the Year at the Helsinki International Fashion Fair on August 27. Riitta Kokkonen is about to graduate from the Department of Fashion and Textile Design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. Her competition entry is along the same lines as the collection she designed for her finals. Riitta's work has a very strong element of form, and modern art has in fact been one of her subsidiary subjects.
Shape takes precedence over fashion, and the decisive factors are clarity and linearity.
Riitta says she has chiefly been influenced by architecture and architects such as Alvar Aalto and, on the fashion side, by such obvious minimalists as Miuccia Prada, Jil Sander and Calvin Klein. Asked to describe herself, Riitta says she is a classical designer in the modern sense, although individuality counts for more than trendiness in her designs. Lifestyle means a lot to her, and she dreams of creating a ladies' collection of her own. Riitta's immediate goal is to go abroad as a trainee, and she is indeed well on her way out into the world, because immediately after the Helsinki International Fashion Show in August she is off to Italy for the finals of the international Mittelmoda Premio competition. There are more than 500 designers taking part in this worldwide exhibition, and Riitta is the only Finn among the 40 finalists.