The initiative Re-Button It! is turning international; the clothing design competition organised for the third time invites designers from the countries of the Visegrád Four (V4) to participate. Competitors may find inspiration for their designs in Central-Europe’s cultural values and traditions. Results of the Re-Button It! Central-Europe competition will be announced on 8 June in Budapest as part of the Central European Fashion Days.

Zoltán Kovács, Minister of State for Social Relations at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice said at the Budapest press conference introducing the competition that this year Hungary holds the presidency of the Central-European Initiative and, as of 1 July, also the presidency of the V4; this is an excellent opportunity for Re-Button It!, a great success and established event in Hungary, to transcend borders and to also involve designers from the countries of Central Europe. The competition was invited by one of the Ministry’s support institutions, Design Terminal, the primary goal of which is to showcase not only Hungarian but also Central-European creativity as part of the Re-Button It! competition.

Designers are required to create high-quality clothing and accessories in line with the latest trends by drawing inspiration from Central-Europe’s (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia) spiritual and material values and traditions. As part of this, designers cannot only derive inspiration from their fashion history or their countries’ folk motifs; if there is a characteristic Polish architectural solution, a Slovak cartoon, a Czech literary figure or the work of a Hungarian painter as a source of inspiration, these ideas and motifs, too, may be used by designers for creating their collections. It is a new feature of the competition that fresh graduates and professionals will compete in separate categories and will not be given monetary prizes but may win valuable professional packages.

Registration will start on 5 February and the international design jury will name the designers who may make their collections at the end of a multi-phase evaluation procedure. The international final jury will select the two category winners from among these works at the finale to be held on 8 June. The closing event will not only host the final of the Re-Button It! Central-Europe competition but also a show of designers invited from the region’s countries as well as a conference and fair. It is additionally important that the competition should become increasingly international, thereby creating a new fashion event that is of regional significance in all its aspects.

According to Luu Anh Tuan, a Hungarian designer of Vietnamese origin, a member of the jury of the final, Re-Button It! offers an international scene of cooperation for talents from the neighbouring countries and, thanks to this, Budapest may have a good chance of becoming the region’s creative centre.

The purpose of the Re-Button It! initiative is to showcase that Hungary has rich traditions not only in fashion but also has a thriving present and a promising future. The wider public had the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the clothes and accessories of a number of local designers in the course of the competitions and related shows. Thanks to this, Hungarian design has been given a new impetus; Hungarian motifs and the clothes of Hungarian designers are becoming increasingly popular not only in Hungary but also abroad.

For more information on the competition, visit www.gomboldujra.hu.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)