11th ATHİB Woven Fabric Design Competition Awards
The 11th final of ATHİB Woven Fabric Design Competition, which reveals the value of woven fabric and provides a free and creative spirit for designer candidates and designers, took place on December 2, 2022 at Adana Hilton Hotel.
The final night of the Woven Fabric Design Competition started with the opening speeches of Dr. Mehmet Muş, Minister of Trade, Dr. Süleyman Elban, Governor of Adana, Mustafa Gültepe, President of TİM, Fatih Doğan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ATHİB, Zeki Kıvanç, Chairman of the Executive Committee of ATHİB Woven Fabric Design Competition & Vice Chairman of ATHİB. There was a great excitement in this night where the sector representatives also participated.
‘‘We will soon talk about 60 billion US dollars of exports in textile’’
Zeki Kıvanç, Chairman of the Executive Committee of ATHİB Woven Fabric Design Competition & Vice Chairman of ATHİB, said: ‘‘The textile and ready-to-wear sector has an economy of 1.5 trillion US dollars in the world. By the end of 2025, it is expected to reach approximately 2.5 trillion US dollars. Turkey has become an important brand and production center for the textile and ready-to-wear sectors. It is a locomotive sector for our country with its exports exceeding 30 billion US dollars annually, employment approaching 1.5 million people and our integrated production structure with trade surplus. In the near future, we will be talking about 60 billion US dollars of exports for this sector. As Adana province, we strive to increase our exports of approximately 2.5 billion US dollars in 2021 to 3 billion US dollars in 2022. With our production and export-oriented economy model, Turkey will be one of the production centers of not only Europe but also the whole world in the coming period.’’
Fatih Doğan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ATHİB, expressed in his statement; ‘‘As ATHİB, we reached an export level of 1.2 billion US dollars in 2021 on this path we started as Çukurova Cotton Exporters’ Association in 1939. Thanks to you, our esteemed members, we realized 2.3 billion US dollars in exports in 2021. We will work harder and produce more.’’
‘‘We have achieved a great momentum in exports in the last two years’’
TİM President Mustafa Gültepe stated the following regarding the state of the Turkish textile industry; ‘‘Production and exports are the locomotive of Turkey’s economy. For the development of our country and the welfare of our nation, we have to produce more, add value to what we produce and export more. We have achieved a great momentum in exports in the last two years. We completed 2021 with a growth of over 30% with 225 billion dollars. In November 2022, it reached the highest figures in all November months; 21.9 billion dollars of exports were made in 1 month. We are talking about an export family, a Turkey that exports over 252 billion dollars in 12 months.’’
Dr. Mehmet Muş, Minister of Trade of the Republic of Turkey expressed the following; ‘‘Turkey is one of the world’s leading countries in the textile and raw materials sector. Its large production capacity is developing more and more every year. In this sense, our exports increased by 40% in 2021 compared to the previous year and amounted to 10 billion dollars, and our country continued to maintain its 7th place in the world. While our textile and raw materials sector increases its share in foreign markets day by day, it continues to make significant contributions to our economy with the products it produces. Our aim is to bring our country to the export figures we target economically in the sector.’’
A Competition Adding Value to Textile and Fashion Industry
A fabric fashion show took place on the competition podium where designs that will shape the future were prepared with great efforts. The fabrics, whose story began in the weaving workshops, met with the imagination of the designers. The 10 finalists’ woven fabric designs with traces of different themes were presented to the jury for evaluation.
Asst. Prof. Dr. Nuray Bıyıklı was the Coordinator and Consultant of the competition, Fashion Designer Özlem Kaya was the Creative Director, and Yasin Soy was the Art Director and Choreographer.
Exciting Moments at the Final Night of the Competition
Following the fabric fashion show with the most valuable and flamboyant designs, the winners of the competition were announced with the evaluations of the jury members and the special prize of Koton, which will provide a job opportunity as an assistant designer, and the special prize of LC Waikiki, which will provide internship opportunities for three months.
With the theme “Androgyne”, “Esra Hatice Dikmen” was awarded the Koton special prize for a job as an assistant designer, and with the theme “Biophilia”, “Özge Güneş” was awarded the LC Waikiki special prize for a 3-month internship.
The first prize was awarded to “Esra Bekiroğlu” with the theme “Lichenes”, the second prize to “Hamide Çelik” with the theme “Colors of Nature” and the third prize to “Eylem Barin” with the theme “Spontaneous”.
Among the finalists, the first prize will be 100,000 TL and a Foreign Language Education Scholarship, the second prize will be 75,000 TL and the third prize will be 50,000 TL. The most important prize of the Woven Fabric Design Competition is; Our Ministry of Trade will provide two years of education abroad to our finalist who ranks first.
All finalists will be provided with a Desktop Dobby Weaving Loom and 10 finalists will be given the opportunity to attend an International Textile Exhibition with a faculty member from the relevant department of the university where they are studying.
