Japanese designers awarded at Lineapelle

The award ceremony of the Lineapelle & Tokyo Leather Fair Competition was held at the Lineapelle exhibition at the end of October. The winners were two young Japanese designers, Konen Kamo (footwear) and Arata Higuchi (leathergoods), from two major fashion schools in Japan, the Bunka Fashion College and Esperanza Institute of Footwear Design and Technique. Nearly one hundred students took part in the competition and their works were described as excellent by the members of the jury. Kamo and Higuchi stood out for the originality and research content of their prototypes. This collaboration with Tokyo Leather Fair will continue in 2006 as well, with a collective exhibition of a select number of Italian operators, which will principally play a key role in offering design proposals to local manufacturers, through the Trend Area and training seminars.