Young Fashion
At our third temporary exhibition, we presented a showcase of artistic youth fashion trends.
The exhibition is a permanent, scalable, tangible result of an educational and artistic project entitled “I draw what I feel – collages from a student's diary – a collection of fabrics printed with original designs and a collection of clothes created on their basis,” carried out by the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Zduńska Wola, awarded in the 5th edition of the “Wena” Grant Program Competition of the Starak Family Foundation entitled “What's new in art?”
The exhibition of costume designs, original fabrics, and silhouettes was presented from July to September 2024.
The poster promoting the exhibition is presented by Agnieszka Świstek,
the teacher leading the project, artist, and curator of the “Young Fashion” exhibition.
The exhibition featured an original collection of fabrics with patterns taken from the sketchbooks of students and clothing designed and sewn by the project participants—students of the art high school in Zduńska Wola.
The original collection was created by 12 students from the State Art School in Zduńska Wola: Julia Jarecka, Aleksandra Matusiak, Karolina Makówka, Julia Owczarek, Michalina Kotlarek, Zofia Kubiak, Wiktoria Filipczak, Gabriela Mikołajczyk, Kornelia Jarosławska, Rozalia Kurek, Zofia Tarka, and Joanna Szewczyk. A big round of applause!
The exhibition was accompanied by a presentation of photographs from the models' photo shoot, as well as a film documenting the performative fashion show that took place at the Łaski Cultural Center in June 2024 during the finale of the award-winning project.
This unique artistic presentation is the young people's response to the competition question “What's new in art?” The medium of art in the project is fabric.
Art is now interdisciplinary. As this project shows, art can combine genres and techniques: graphics, drawing, clothing, and fabric, says Agnieszka Świstek, the teacher in charge, artist, and curator of the exhibition.
Detal tkaniny - zaprojektowanej i wydrukowanej przez uczniów
Student sketchbooks – a source of inspiration for fabric designs
Thanks to this exhibition, the Wena Gallery has been transformed into a space radiating the expression of “Young Fashion.”
The closing ceremony of the “Young Fashion” exhibition took place in September 2024. The highlight of the event was an extremely colorful and expressive fashion show featuring the original collection of students from the PLSP in Zduńska Wola.
Twenty-six silhouettes designed by young designers under the guidance of Agnieszka Świstek, the lead teacher, were presented in a different arrangement, lighting, and space, allowing the audience to rediscover them. The models from the “Wena” dance group, operating at the Łaski Cultural Center, found their place in the new space, creating site-specific choreography under the artistic direction of Joanna Juźwin. The creations were met with great applause from the audience, who were keenly interested in fashion and the students' original collection.
Wiesława Giedrojć, Member of the Board of the Starak Family Foundation, opened the event by saying:
All of us here are very interested in the artistic creations of young people, and we support their passions and development. We respect the many hours of work they have put in, spending extra time in the school workshop to achieve such a wonderful material result of their concept! We hope that participation in the project will be the spark that will pay off in their future careers.
Wiesława Giedrojć, Member of the Board of the Starak Family Foundation
with Julia Jarecka, designer, student at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Zduńska Wola
with Julia Jarecka, designer, student at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Zduńska Wola
Prof. Tomasz Milanowski, Dean of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, member of the Competition Jury of the “Wena” Grant Program and originator of the theme of the 5th edition of the “What's Up with Art?” Competition, who was present at the meeting, congratulated the young artists on the verve and energy with which the project was carried out and admitted that he heard the young people's statement about contemporary art here and now. As an artist, he also drew attention to the painterly aspects of the costumes and the entire show.
Dr Aleksandra Jatczak-Repeć from the Fashion History and Theory Studio at the Fashion Department of the Faculty of Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw emphasized that the commonly accepted distinction between fashion and art does not exist. Fashion is a field that cannot do without other disciplines such as drawing, composition, photography, design, choreography, and performance. The expert congratulated the young people from Zduńska Wola on their very ambitious and courageous approach to fashion as a language of communication and creative expression, especially at such a young stage of life and education. Dr. Jatczak-Repeć also drew attention to the experimental aspect, so evident in the project: playing with proportions, bold use of color, and embedding the concept in contemporary trends.
The fashion show was watched with great interest by Iwona Skowron, deputy director of the Center for Artistic Education in Warsaw, an institution that has repeatedly supported and sponsored the “Wena” Grant Program Competitions. The director expressed her deep hope that such projects will breathe new life into all fashion design studios in art schools.
Throughout the history of the “Wena” Grant Program Competitions, young people from PLSP in Zduńska Wola were the first to respond to the competition task through a clothing design studio and fashion art.
