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Fashion students at Aalto University were victorious in the Nordic fashion competition ALPHA. BA-graduate at Aalto, Ruusa Vuori is the winner of this year's ALPHA Award, she was also awarded the Exhibition Prize.

‘Managing to translate life’s most complex concepts and emotions into minimal and sensitive designs is one of the hardest things for a designer to do and Ruusa achieved just that. Her body-centric practice uses fashion-making as a tool for artistic exploration and this methodology lead to original and experimental, yet subtle garments that feel grandiose, confessing their strong and multi-layered foundations’, the jury stated.

The winner will receive 50.000 DKK along with a study trip to UEDA College of Fashion in Osaka and a unique trophy created by artist Karl Monies.

‘My work has developed by experimenting, in a process where one’s body is the subject’, says Ruusa Vuori. ‘I have tried to listen, to analyse and to illustrate the information the body-subject has internalised and present it in a wearable form. It’s a study of embodied knowledge.’ 

Her collection is inspired by her background in dance, exploring the perception of self and personal space, where garments can both liberate and constrict. The result is a line of sculpture-like and gravity-defying garments; one forcing the model to walk backwards, two fastening the arms to the torso, another extending at the hip, freeing the legs and taking up the width of the runway - products of her sensory relationship with movement and materials.

Also, MA graduate at Aalto, Iidaliina Friman was selected for a paid internship at the luxury fashion label The Row at their Paris studio.

‘Idaliina’s collection successfully conveys the emotion with which she imagined it, combining the research into her heritage with a modern take on the proposed silhouettes. with a mindful approach to her fabric selection, and thorough exploration of her garment’s construction, the outcome is extremely sophisticated and polished’, said Daniele Pelucchi, International Human Resources Manager at The Row.

In addition, MA graduate at Aalto Anni Salonen was chosen to create a capsule collection to launch exclusively at Browns Fashion.

Other winners were MA graduate Hermann Bloch, awareded the ALPHA 1 Granary mentorship prize and MA graduate Tilde Harold, awarded both the Exhibition Prize and the ALPHA 1 Granary mentorship prize, both winners from the Royal Danish Academy, Denmark.

ALPHA Award (formerly Designers’ Nest) is a competition for BA and MA graduates from invited Nordic design schools. Each year 10 finalists are selected to present their graduate work at the joint ALPHA Award show at Copenhagen Fashion Week. Awarded designers receive mentorships, internships, study trips and support to produce a commercial collection.