Hempel Award and Mittelmoda honor four Fashion students
Recent graduates Cheng Ai, Inés Andreu, Grace Uribe, and Ariadna Jiménez have won prizes at both competitions with their final-year collections.
Four students from our Bachelor’s in Fashion Design have just won prizes at Hempel Award and Mittelmoda, two international competitions for young designers that year after year recognize #MadeInLCI talent. The projects they entered are part of their final-year collections.
Hempel Award (China International Young Fashion Designers Contest)
The city of Hangzhou once again hosted the grand final of the contest organized by the China Fashion Association and Hempel International Group. At the 34th edition, Cheng Ai and Inés Andreu each received an Excellence Award, while their classmate Grace Uribe took third place. Here are their projects:
Cheng Ai – “Guachisnai”
- In a fantasy world, a carnivorous plant and a pollinating insect cross paths by chance and connect instantly. “Guachisnai” is what some parts of Spain call a foreigner, and Cheng’s collection tells how a brief, unexpected encounter ends up transforming them both: each changes their look to create a code of their own between them. The prints combine sublimation and hand painting.
Inés Andreu – “Rebel Soul”
- A womenswear collection inspired by the 1950s Beat Generation, a movement that looked for other ways of living and kept moving without putting down roots. Inés brings that attitude into the present, to groups that come together only for a while: people waiting in line for an exhibition, signing up for a weekend workshop, or putting together an improvised online team.
Grace Uribe – “Mexico 2090”
- It imagines a future Mexico where people no longer group together permanently, but around what they live together: festivals, celebrations, shared rituals... In that ever-changing society, clothing is the fastest way to recognize one another and feel part of a group.
“Transient Union” was the theme of this edition, and the three collections interpret it from different angles: the fleeting encounter between two beings, the nomadic spirit of the Beats, and communities that form and dissolve in an instant.
Among the members of the jury, made up of distinguished professionals from around the world, was our faculty member Gabriel Torres, director of projects for the Bachelor’s in Fashion Design.
International Lab of Mittelmoda – The Fashion Award
Milan hosted the final of the 32nd edition of the competition, held at Garage 21 during Milano Unica. There, Ariadna Jiménez took home the IDEABIELLA Young Creativeness Award. She and her classmate Alba Semper were the only Spanish representatives among the finalists, and LCI Barcelona the only Spanish school among international institutions such as Bunka and the Royal Academy. These are the projects they presented:
Ariadna Jiménez – “Linaje”
- The collection is inspired by the aesthetics and protocol of the British royal family, reinterpreted from a contemporary perspective. It centers on a young royal figure who combines tradition, responsibility, and modernity, with elegant silhouettes, noble fabrics, and details inspired by aristocracy. Ariadna adapts classic luxury to today’s sensibility, and fashion becomes a symbol of identity, sophistication, and cultural heritage.
Alba Semper – “Catharsis”
- An intimate journey back to her own body. The collection is about rebuilding it step by step, listening to what it needs, with its gaps and its battles. For Alba, that path was also a way of discovering who she is.
We are confident this is just the beginning. Congratulations, Cheng, Inés, Grace, Ariadna, and Alba!
*Images: Hempel and Mittelmoda.