The importance of supporting emerging talent grows in inverse proportion to the increasing consolidation of the fashion industry. New voices, and diverse ones, that speak in the voice of an emerging generation, must be heard. One organization providing such assistance in the Nordics is Alpha, based in Copenhagen, which was developed from a non-profit initiative called Designer’s Nest. Led by Ane Lynge-Jorlén since 2019, Alpha’s two aims are “creating an awareness of the cultural value of fashion in the Nordics” and “helping emerging talents and graduates from the Nordics with a career furthering pathway.”
Lynge-Jorlén has emphasized pan-Nordic representation; 2024’s finalists hail from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and for the first time, Iceland. She’s also curated juries that include industry professionals. Among those for this edition, which will take place during Copenhagen Fashion Week in January, are talent curator Sara Sozzani Maino, Browns’s buying director Ida Petersson, and designers Heikki Salonen (MM6 Maison Margiela, Vyner Articles) and Lutz Huelle.
“The level in these schools is always really high,” says Huelle, who teaches at HEAD in Geneva. What these designers have in common with his students, said the designer, was that they are “very much concerned with questions of inclusiveness, with sustainability, much, much more, I would say, than we were at the time. And I do think that they’re much more concerned also with how the fashion industry works.” As varied as the work of this group is–covering topics like rootlessness and identity–the collections speak to Huelle’s conception of Scandinavian design: “For me, it often [offers] a more clear approach towards reality. Even though it can be extreme, it always has this kind of thing where it does work on normal bodies, where it can work in real life. I suppose [Scandinavian design] is very democratic.”
“Creativity, design skills, originality, and awareness,” are among the criteria for selection, explained Lynge-Jorlén. “I think what is unique about Alpha,” she continued, is that every year we see two strands of work represented. We have the wearable ready-to-wear. And then there is the more experimental shape-shifting fashion, which perhaps speaks to a more artistic practice and museum context. And I’m really happy that we have both strengths because some talents don’t really want to work in the fashion industry, but they still make work that can make us dream and hope for a better future and make us think about what it means to be a human in this complex world. And it’s important that that work exists, as well.”
Meet the finalists for the 2024 Alpha prize.
Andreas Hermann Bloch, Royal Danish Academy. Combines ethnographic studies with innovative, no waste pattern making.
Idaliina Friman, Aalto University. Won the 2021 Designer’s Nest Award and is now showcasing her Master’s collection at Alpha. Continuing to mine her family history for inspiration, this collection addresses concealment.
Thelma Rut Gunnarsdóttir, Iceland Academy of Arts. Considers the ideas of space and tranquility with sculptural crocheted pieces.
Tilde Herold, Royal Danish Academy. Has said she wants to “redefine power dressing from a female point of view.”
Kelly Konings, Swedish School of Textiles. Elevates and exposes textile systems so they “are not merely an invisible backbone of the fashion industry but included as an equal partner.”
Alex Luonto. Aalto University. Describes their semi-couture collection, Objects of Desire, as “minimalist in form, maximalist in essence!”
Liana Paberza, Swedish School of Textiles. Makes use of AI and blends the physical and virtual worlds into something hyperreal.
Ingrid Pettersson, Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Places rectangles of rib knit together in various directions, which gives her garments bounce.
Anni Salonen, Aalto University. This designer uses upcycled materials that are sculpted into tactile forms.
Ruusa Vuori, Aalto University. With a background in dance, the designer places the body at the center of their work, and thinks of garments in terms of gesture and in relation to space.
