Organized by Uludag Textile Exporters' Association (UTİB) within the last 11 years and bringing tens of young designers to the industry, at the Turkish Home Textile Design Contest young competitors competed to achieve "Create a Sustainable Lifestyle." Dokuz Eylül University Fashion Clothing Design graduate Birce Avcu awarded for the title with her collection named ‘’ On The Road’’ at the competition in which 79 young designers in total with 75 of them were women and 4 of them were men were in competition. At the competition, second place given to the collection named "Anthropocene Marmara" by Buse Sözen from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Department of Textile and Fashion Design and the third place awarded to the ''Entropy" collection by Pelin Aykar who was graduated from the same department as the runner as well.
At the competition, to define its format for applicants, 60 hours training program was conducted in various subjects for contestants whom gone through their training starting from their early application and in various subjects as each them associate with specific topics in the form of an award and amongst all other applicants, three finalist designers were proceeded to the award stage to entitle for the three month online English training, to privilege to register their design, and to be qualified for the apply to the Overseas Design Scholarship offered by the Ministry of Commerce. The designers, whom have qualified for an award, will have the privilege to meet industrialists under the leadership of UTİB to communicate their project work and to join in cooperation. Winner of the competition will also be awarded for the 1-Year EAT Jacquard Weaving Design Program License & User Training.
''Young Designers for the Industry''
While emphasizing on the cash winning awards at competitions with similar content for the applicants whom qualified for an award, UTİB Chairman of the Board Pınar Taşdelen Engin said, ‘’We stopped entitling winners with monetary award five years ago. Our main aim was here to move bright minds and their ideas towards production and to reach economic value. The trigger factor here was to support young students whom continuing their education or whom have just graduated from a program. Our educational programs have proven their success on students as their participation was the key parameter and we changed the name of the competition that was once called ‘’Home Textile Competition’’ to ‘’Master Class’’ by designing the whole process with a clear focus on education. In this way, we were successful in running Master Class in Turkey in its field for the first time. Our main aim was here to make our young brains to fully equip with necessary training in design field by understanding the industry demand and to make them capable of working with the companies in the industry with confidence and capability thanks to their know-how at the start of their career. Thanks to our efforts, within the last 11 years, almost all of our young talents have remained in the industries that have ranked amongst winners category. This surely has a big gain not only for us but also for our companies, our industry and our country.’’
Birce Avcu, a graduate of Dokuz Eylül University Fashion Clothing Design and a chapter from her ‘’On The Road” collection, ‘’ Being on the road gives us a perspective that can help us to see the whole world and discover life with a new eye. The designs emphasizing the concepts of uniqueness and spontaneity, inspired by the textures and landscapes of the road in an alternative life prepared with the theme 'On The Road' were brought together with the Tiny House home concept in order to be in our homes while on the road.’’
