Region’s Top Fashion Event to Spotlight Next Generation of Creators

The collections of around 100 Hungarian and regional designers will be presented between September 1 and 7 at the 16th Budapest Central European Fashion Week (BCEFW), which this year will give more space than ever before to young Hungarian designers, the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency (HFDA ) announced.

In addition to Hungary, the Budapest fashion week will feature the creations of designers from six other Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine). Among them, for the first time in the history of BCEFW, recent fashion and textile design graduates from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) and the Budapest Metropolitan University (METU) will also be presenting their diploma collections, giving a glimpse into the innovative thinking of the next generation, the agency said.

The press release quotes Zsófia Jakab, CEO of HFDA, who emphasized that one of the main goals of BCEFW is to provide a platform for the next generation of creators. The connection between METU and MOME programs and the official events of BCEFW is an important step not only for students but for the entire industry, she said. According to Zsófia Jakab, nurturing talent is not only a long-term investment, “but also an active force shaping the present of the profession.”

The opening day of the Fashion Week will be on September 1 at the Hungarian National Museum, where the diploma collections of ’26 METU graduates will be on display.

On September 4, the MOME Fashion Show, which is sold out every year, will be held at the MOME campus on Zugligeti Street, accompanied by a symposium and exhibition. From September 5 to 7, the Apollo Gallery and Millenáris Building D will host featured fashion shows, while the Budapest National Dance Theater will host Fashion Hub, roundtable discussions, and industry workshops.

Nearly 60 percent of the brands presenting at the Fashion Week are young designers, reads the BCEFW press release. This is partly thanks to BCEFW’s multi-year talent development platforms:

• Young Talents, that gives space to career starters, and
• New Generation, that showcases emerging creators through collective fashion shows.

In addition, numerous talents are given the opportunity to showcase their work through Fashion Hub presentations, such as the winners of the HFDA Kerülj képbe! (Enter the picture!) Discovery of the Year program. Thanks to the relationship established with educational institutions, students studying to become fashion designers and tailors are given the opportunity to attend fashion shows every season.

The Budapest Central European Fashion Week will be attended by editors of numerous foreign fashion magazines, as well as renowned stylists and industry professionals.

The fashion event attracts 5-6,000 visitors per season, they write.

According to the press release, the Fashion Week will feature lectures, pop-up events, promotions, showroom openings, and professional forums, providing an opportunity to showcase the entire spectrum of the fashion industry, from education and manufacturing to distribution and consumption. The primary goal of the HFDA is to introduce the values of domestic brands to as wide an audience as possible and to encourage more and more people to choose products by Hungarian designers, the organizers write.

The BCEFW not only showcases but also encourages demand for domestic brands, thereby contributing to the economic strengthening of the creative industry, reads the announcement.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Balogh Zoltán