MILAN – Timisola Shasanya won the inaugural Sozzani Award on Saturday.
The Nigeria-born fashion designer convinced the jury with her debut ready-to-wear collection, which reworked familiar menswear tropes with unexpected fabrics and details, for example using the waxed cotton of British hunting jackets for shrunken blazers or referencing the pattern of traditional Nigerian weaving techniques in leather tank tops with graphic cutouts.
“The collection is about the duality of growing up in two different environments. I was born in Ireland, but I’m of Nigerian descent, and I was raised in London… the inspiration really came from moving between different cultures and spaces, and taking elements and references from those environments,” she said.
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While referencing British youth culture and arts, she said, the collection incorporates fabrics nodding to her roots, as they are either produced in England, Nigeria, or France, with manufacturing split between the latter two countries.
The collection – on display at the Fondazione Sozzani’s headquarters inside a former industrial plant in Milan’s Bovisasca neighborhood – will be unveiled digitally on Monday as part of the official calendar of Milan Fashion Week.
A Central Saint Martins graduate with a BA in menswear, Shasanya is currently enrolled in a master’s program at Paris’ Institut Francaise de la Mode. She also briefly interned at Ferragamo between Milan and Florence and got to discover Fondazione Sozzani’s work.
Moving to Paris for IFM, she said, allowed her to measure up to yet another environment and learn the history and techniques of couture. “I kind of wanted to venture away from London and learn more about the craft in terms of the technical abilities… to make like garments and pieces that not only can be worn but also can be [appreciated from an] more artistic point of view,” she said.
The Sozzani Award comes with a 15,000-euro prize, which Shasanya plans to channel toward further developing her skills and embed more handcraft into her collections, as she prepares to fully dedicate herself to her namesake label after her master’s studies. She plans to present her next collection at Paris Fashion Week in six months’ time.
As reported earlier this month, the yearly Sozzani Awards are aimed at spotlighting and celebrating “creative paths that combine independence, rigor and responsibility, championing voices capable of shaping new narratives and making a thoughtful, forward-looking impact on the present,” the foundation said.
Dedicated to photography, fashion, and design and craft, the awards are given to the most talented candidate of one of the three categories each year.
The inaugural award, supported by Veuve Clicquot, was focused on design and craft and highlighted female creators and entrepreneurs.
Shasanya beat the other two finalists – Canadian, but Paris-based multidisciplinary artist Marie-Éve Lecavalier, who specializes in material innovation at the intersection of design and art, and the London-based artist Mai Suzki, who works across sculptures for the body, spatial installations, product design, and 3D design and digital fabrications.
Fondazione Sozzani’s creative director Sara Sozzani Maino said that the other two finalists will be invited again by the foundation to present their work during upcoming initiatives.
Mai Suzki.
Courtesy of Fondazione Sozzani
The winner was selected by a jury that comprised, among others, the Institution designer Galib Gassanoff; Calvin Klein Collection’s creative director Veronica Leoni, and fashion historian Olivier Saillard, in addition to Fondazione Sozzani’s driving forces, president and cofounder Carla Sozzani; American artist Kris Ruhs, Carla’s husband and the foundation’s other cofounder, and Sozzani Maino, the daughter of Carla and niece of the late legendary Vogue Italia editor in chief Franca Sozzani.
Established in 2016 by Carla Sozzani and Ruhs, to manage the Galleria Carla Sozzani art, fashion and design gallery which opened in 1990, Fondazione Sozzani has grown into a full-fledged cultural platform. Currently on display in its basement is a selection of Comme des Garçons pieces from Carla’s personal archive.
Earlier this year the foundation joined the Global Education Coalition, the partnership platform established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
