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Master students in fashion, Milla Lintilä and Emilia Kuurila, as well as photographer Hilla Kurki, who graduated from Aalto last year, made it to the international finals of Hyères fashion and photography festivals this year. Lintilä made it with her women's clothing collection and Emilia Kuurila with men's clothing collection. The finalists were selected from 300 applicants from over 50 countries.

‘Our students’ collections in the finals this year were quite different from the other finalists in that they were very finished.  Milla's collection was completely ready for production and for the market, that is its strength. Usually creative collections are awarded in Hyères competition’, says Pirjo Hirvonen, Professor of Fashion Design.

Milla Lintilä's collection is visually beautiful, completely knitted, and because of that there is no waste material, so it is sustainable. The collection was inspired by manifestos of Valentine De Saint-Point: Manifesto of a Futurist Woman and Manifesto of Lust.

’With self-made knitwear from the scratch I wanted to interpret what femininity means today’, says Lintilä. ’To me, the festival was a grand opportunity to showcase my work—not only to the jury but to all who visited the showroom, the fashion show guests and the media. Hyères is a spectacular opportunity to young designers and all contacts and network I was able to get there are irreplaceable. I couldn’t be happier right now, the Galleries Lafayette award is one of the most interesting to me, and it gives me the chance to continue with building up my own brand.’

Emilia Kuurila's men's collection did not make it to win prizes, but Kuurila praises the Hyères experience anyway.

‘I feel super! Making it to the finals is a big thing, concerning my future career. The prizes may come on top of that as a bonus. As an experience, this was incredible! We thought, Milla and I, that we had quite ready collections, but here we realized that one really has to be a 'mini fashion house': one’s got to do the design and marketing, as well as the production to succeed’, says Kuurila. She has also designed the formal wear for Espoo’s female bishop, Kaisamari Hintikka.

The 34th edition of the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion accessories from 25 to 29 April 2019. The festival promotes young creation in fashion, photography and fashion accessories areas. Every year, the festival is organized around three competitions that bring out ten fashion designers, ten photographers and ten accessories designers who are selected by professionals.

Emilia Kuurila’s collection, photo Sofia Okkonen. Milla Lintilä’s collection, photo Guillaume Roujas.