On March 13, 2025, as part of the business program of the "INTERFABRIC-2025.Spring" exhibition, the winners of the international textile design competition Textile Design Talents Solstudio Award 2025 were announced. The competition is held for the eighth consecutive year by Solstudio Textile Group and SOYUZLEGPROM with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the "INTERFABRIC" exhibition. The project partner is the Fashion Factory School, a business education school in the fashion industry in Russia and the CIS.
The independent jury included Andrey Razbrodin, President of the Union of Entrepreneurs of the Textile and Light Industry (SOYUZLEGPROM), Alexandra Kaloshina, founder of Solstudio Textile Group, as well as leading professionals in textile design and fashion: Victoria Andreyanova, founder of the Victoria Andreyanova Fashion House; Alena Akhmadullina, creator of the Alena Akhmadullina brand; Angelina Benatello, Director of Graphic Design and Embroidery at Gloria Jeans; Valeria Titova, neuro-artist, neural network evangelist, lecturer, and author of the “AI-Lera” channel; Irina Rybaulina, Head of the Department of Textile Art and Ornament at the A.N. Kosygin Russian State University.
This year, over 183 designers from 9 countries submitted applications, with more than 1,500 works received. The main themes of this season's creative challenge were mosaic and light writing. The jury selected 20 finalists and three winners.
"Our competition carries an important mission – through it, we are creating a library of modern textile designs, which is available in open access on the competition’s website," shared Alexandra Kaloshina. "This season, we decided to enrich the library with designs created using artificial intelligence and, therefore, invited participants to use it as the primary tool for the ‘light writing’ theme. As a result, hundreds of AI-generated works were submitted to the jury. For many participants, it was their first experience, and they shared in their letters that they will continue developing these skills as they proved to be valuable."
1st place – Margarita Kokovina (Russia), costume and textile designer. "I consider myself a clothing designer and studied in this field, but I have always been interested in prints. Creating great design is possible not only through form and decoration but also by developing something entirely new with fabric prints. Sometimes the potential of a print in a collection can even surpass that of the form itself," shared Margarita.
2nd place – Taisia Grey (Russia), a 2nd-year student at the Institute of Business and Design. "I am studying Costume Design and only started working with prints this year. This is one of my first projects and victories. Thank you very much for the opportunity to work with new technologies. It was fascinating to work with AI while creating prints and applying them," admitted Taisia.
3rd place – Ekaterina Vasilieva (Russia), works at a textile studio. "I started preparing for the competition back in December when the assignment was announced, and I began drawing three weeks before the deadline. The ‘light writing’ theme was quite challenging for me. It was something new – I studied transitions, filters – it was very interesting," said Ekaterina.
Prizes for the winners were provided by the Fashion Factory School (part of the Ultimate Education educational holding), Solstudio Textile Group, and the company "Sintez Vostok".
The Solstudio Textile Group was established in 1999. The group includes:
Solstudio Textile Design – a textile design studio with clients in over 30 countries. More than 300 of the company’s works have become global trends, cited by the world’s largest analytical agencies. The studio’s portfolio contains 19,000 original designs. The company has twice been awarded the national "Golden Spindle" prize by the Russian Fashion Academy, received Fashion TV awards, was included in the "Top 10" enterprises of Russia by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and won the "Best Industrial Design" award.
Solstudio Industry – a digital fabric printing factory located in the "Kalibr" Technopark, opened in 2019. The production facility operates three modern fabric printing lines. The factory works with all types of fabrics: cotton, linen, silk, viscose, wool, as well as artificial and synthetic fabrics. The minimum order is 50 meters.
Competition Partners:
Print-a-porter – a digital platform for fast fabric printing, accepting online orders starting from 50 cm across Russia. Offers a choice of 30,000 fabric options. It provides unlimited possibilities for individuals to create their own clothing or update interiors – in 3 clicks and within 5 days.
Radical Chic – a brand of accessories and clothing. Models made of cotton, silk, and wool are presented in the brand’s own stores and online, as well as in 60 retail locations across Russia. Collections are created at their own production facility in Moscow.
Fashion Factory School – a business education school in the fashion industry in Russia and the CIS, part of the Ultimate Education holding. The school was founded by renowned Russian designer Lyudmila Norsoyan in 2013. Today, the school offers over 30 educational programs and courses in areas such as "Creating Your Own Brand from Scratch," "Fashion Professions," Digital Fashion, "Collection Creation and Production," and "Fashion Sales." The school collaborates with over 200 lecturers from leading Russian fashion brands. More than 13,000 people have graduated from the school, including founders and employees of many well-known and successful brands such as Present&Simple, TOTTI, 2MOOD, Agreeg, and others.
