The awards were announced at the ‘Koza Young Fashion Designers Competition’ organized by the Istanbul Apparel and Apparel Exporters’ Association (İHKİB). In the final, which took place last month and featured 10 highly ambitious young designers, Mehmet Emiroğlu was awarded first place, followed by Başak Koç in second place and Nazlıcan Karahan in third.
The event, judged by renowned fashion designers, was attended by numerous fashion enthusiasts. LASIAD was represented at the event by Board Chairman Gıyasettin Eyyüpkoca and Board Vice Chairman Ercan Hardal.
“The winner of the competition, whose jury was chaired by İHKİB Board Member Cem Altan, not only received a cash prize of 20,000 TL but also earned the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree abroad with the support of the Ministry of Economy. The second-place winner received 15,000 TL, and the third-place winner received 10,000 TL in cash prizes. Additionally, the top three contestants were granted one year of free English language education.”
IHKIB Board Chairman Hikmet Tanrıverdi stated in his announcement, ‘In Turkey’s most established fashion design competition, we have introduced over 200 young talents to the fashion industry. Many names who took their first steps into the world of design through the Koza Young Fashion Designers Competition are now creating collections for both domestic and international brands. With the unique designs of our talented youth, we have increased our ready-to-wear exports, which were around 1 billion dollars 30 years ago, to 18.7 billion dollars. While Turkey’s export revenue per kilogram is around 1.5 dollars on average, we are talking about 23-24 dollars in ready-to-wear and apparel. If we are at the top in value-added exports and contribute a net foreign exchange of 15 billion dollars to our country every year, we must not forget the difference that design makes here. Together with our young talents, we want to focus more on design and increase our export revenue per kilogram to 40-50 dollars.’
