Hosted by DARE Clan and ERA-KI, the Unicorn Fashion Awards seeks to find and promote emerging fashion designers to an international platform through a 4-12 month long accelerator program.

Looking for creators that prioritize quality and creativity, this year’s finalists, while spread across the world – ranging from Tokyo in Japan to Graz in Austria – centered around shared values of craftsmanship, innovation, and sustainability. 

An impressive line-up of ten finalists were judged by a jury consisting of industry experts, including xPlot’s Lars Mattiasson, as well as through online voting. 

Out of the ten, three emerged as the winners: KOH T, MIKAGE SHIN, and HYUN WOOK JO. Let’s take a closer look at their work.

1. KoH T

Behind the elegant collection of KoH T is Taisuke Kohji, who is now the brand’s creative director. Established in Japan in 2018, KoH T is a sustainable brand that embraces tradition and craftsmanship. But the designers are also eagerly curious – resulting in innovative yet timeless pieces and a utilitarian yet luxurious collection.

There is so much more to fashion than mass-production, mass-consumption, and automation. For KoH T, inspiration is drawn from ancient Japan and an old master in the art of ceramics: Hon'ami Kōetsu, and through trial end error – deriving from traditional crafts and their techniques – KoH T mixes old and new into the present. 

2. MIKAGE SHIN

MIKAGE SHIN, established in New York in 2019, is the personal brand of Tokyo-born Mikage Shin. A luxury brand with a genderless aesthetic, Mikage always tries to transmit positive messages in her designs, fighting against discrimination towards minorities and constantly promoting mutual respect and diversity.

MIKAGE SHIN’s latest collection derives from the lived experiences of the COVID pandemic. As Mikage herself said, “this collection expresses the chaos of the turning point and the sense of something new being born.” Despite its inherently innovative message, however, the collection also takes a deep-dive in history, with Mikage taking inspiration from old masters of the past – like Nietzsche, who talked about the process of change to reach new productions. Her pieces are eloquently peculiar, mixing sleek lines with patterned textures – a unique intersection of old and new.

‍

‍

3. HYUN WOOK JO

“For people who love coffee, not caffeine” is the slogan of Hyun Wook Jo’s global fashion brand De_Caffeine Homme, which has a base stretching Tokyo and Seoul. Following the philosophy of Neodadaism – which goes against the common canons and conventions of aestheticism – De_Caffeine Homme focuses its efforts on creating trendy pieces of clothing that are disruptive and innovative, but which its users can freely and easily wear when, for example, drinking coffee.

For the 2021 F/W and S/S collections, the concept was “REPURPOSE,” seeing designs from new and different perspectives, making them recognizable for other purposes than their conventional ones. The garments in themselves are made with selected and high-quality materials following the advanced OEM process, to provide the best design and best quality for every piece. For the De_Caffeine Homme team, attention to details are what accentuates the brand – and we agree.

‍

Congratulations to our three winners! KoH T, MIKAGE SHIN, and Hyun Wook Jo will all participate in the UFA Acceleration Programme to hold presentations in Milan in the spring of 2022.

We are so excited to see how they will impact and contribute to the future of fashion.
‍

–––––––––––––––––––––

To read more about UFA, please read our previous blog posts:

Daring, Adventurous, Radical, and Eccentric: Welcome to UFA 2021

Nature, craftsmanship, and sustainability in focus at UFA 2021

and visit DARE CLAN's website: https://www.dareclan.com/ufa2021.
‍

–––––––––––––––––––––

Text and images are adapted from DARE CLAN for xPlot by Anneli Xie.