Fashion Week

Mercedes-Benz, in association with Fashion Week by Berns, presents the Young Fashion Industry Award to an emerging young Swedish designer who has not only demonstrated past achievement, but also the potential for future success in fashion.

The YFI Award was founded by Keri Ingvarsson, in association with the Fresh Faces in Fashion Award, presented at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, which has honoured once newcomers and now industry stars as Zac Posen, Phillip Lim, Rebecca Taylor, Chaiken, Shoshanna, and Dagmar.

Like the Fresh Faces Award, YFI Award hopes not only to identify new design talent, but also to honour these young rising stars. This season, a jury of fashion industry experts at the top of their professions were asked to judge from over 200 entries submitted by a vast number of skilled designers, based on leadership, passion, and vision. From an array of sartorial artists with incredibly varied aesthetic motivations and methods, only the most creative, unique, and memorable designers were chosen as finalists. Of these five finalists, one has been chosen to receive the YFI Award.

The YFI Award covers all the expenses of a runway show on schedule at Fashion Week by Berns, the preeminent showcase event for fashion in Scandinavia.

Besides being a grand expression of the designer's vision, the fashion show is also the vehicle through which a designer markets each collection to press, buyers, and customers essential for company growth and prosperity. Such an event represents a great opportunity, but also a great expense. A scholarship of sorts, the YFI Award makes it possible for promising design talents to gain the publicity and praise which they so deserve by sponsoring the production of a show on one of the most respected catwalks in Northern Europe.

The award allows the designer to focus on what he does best, perfecting his creative vision in a collection, without it being clouded by practical drudgeries and financial matters.

Today more than ever, fashion demands innovation and is fueled by uncompromising change. Every season, we look for something different, something fresh, something new. We congratulate all the finalists for their successes, and salute them for inspiring us to challenge norms, to seek novel methods of expression, and to distinguish ourselves from the crowd, as they themselves have done.