Mirey Demirci Wins EİB Fashion Design Competition

EİB Fashion Design Competition Winner Announced as Mirey Demirci Winners were announced for the EİB Fashion Design Competition, held for the 17th time this year by the Aegean Ready-Made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association with support from the Ministry of Commerce, aimed at meeting the designer needs of the Turkish fashion industry and opening doors for young, innovative designers. The 17th EİB Fashion Design Competition winner was Mirey Demirci with her design titled Old Flavours, New Recipe. Second place went to Ayşenur Kayar with her design Green Newspaper, while third place was won by Ayşe Hümeyra Tatar with her design The Baby in Arcadia. The top 10 finalists who reached the final presented their collections, which they prepared with the İzmir Maturation Institute under the mentorship of Özlem Erkan, with choreography by Akif Örük. TİM Chairman Mustafa Gültepe stated: "Our ready-made clothing and textile sectors are among Turkey's pioneering sectors. Our sectors will continue to exist with young people who always invest in design. We are working to open doors for our youth. We must emphasize sustainable fashion creation, place emphasis on green transition and digitalization. Turkey's ready-made clothing and textile sectors rank second after the automotive sector. Our sectors are production and export hubs. Our Design Competition has been a good achievement for our young people and their futures." Aegean Ready-Made Clothing and Apparel Exporters Association Chairman Burak Sertbaş said: "In 2022, we achieved USD 31.5 billion in exports in the ready-made clothing and textile sectors. Beyond our export volume, we are today among Turkey's highest value-added exporting sectors. Our export unit price per kilogram is well above Turkey's average. Our goal is to increase our average export price to higher levels. Our country advances in design every year. The most important factor in achieving this success, and what also distinguishes us from our competitors, is our design strength. Design competitions are platforms where young designers are encouraged, different perspectives are brought together, and new ideas emerge. Competitions play a major role each year in bringing young talents into production."

Chairman Sertbaş continued as follows:

"Talented designers we discover in Fashion Design competitions strengthen our sector's design power and raise the bar higher every year. Again, world-renowned fashion designers from our country who participate in our competitions and create highly successful works on the international stage represent our country in the best way and make us proud. Young designers showed considerable interest in our competition this year as well, and we received applications from a total of 250 young people. Among these applications, our 10 ambitious and creative finalists who made it to the final prepared highly successful and enjoyable-to-watch collections suited to our competition's theme with their designed collections. We are proud of all our finalists. At this point, I would like to thank our Ministry of Commerce and Turkish Exporters Assembly for enabling us to hold our design competitions and supporting design investments on every platform." EHKİB Social Organizations and Competition Committee Chairman Tuğba Hazar stated: "We determined the theme of this competition as the beginning of existence and symbol of development: 'SEED'. We asked participants to tell a story of new beginnings and development in their off-season collections. I witnessed that each participant prepared unique and joy-of-living-reflecting collections. I congratulate all our finalists. We thank our Ministry of Commerce and Turkish Exporters Assembly for their important contributions to our award-winning finalists, fashion designer Özlem Erkan for not leaving our finalists alone throughout the process. We are grateful to the İzmir Maturation Institute, which undertook the dedicated sewing of all collections. We thank our Competition Committee team and EİB secretariat who worked for the successful completion of the event."

What are the awards?

-First Prize Award TRY 100,000 Second Prize Award TRY 75,000 Third Prize Award TRY 50,000 -Foreign Education Scholarship Award: International Fair Participation Note: The collections of the top 10 finalists will be exhibited at the Turkey Design Week event, which is expected to be held annually under the organization of the Turkish Exporters Assembly and coordination of the Ministry of Commerce.