Even if it wasn't enough for a place on the podium in the end, Pascal Gracian Dyrna from the Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology at Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) in Italy has impressively demonstrated his skills. The Master's student impressed the critics in the renowned "Feel the Yarn 2024" competition. He was provided with high-quality luxury yarns from the Italian silk specialist "Servizi e Seta", s.r.l. for the realization of his jumpsuit on the theme of "Contradictions - Man and Machine".

The competition, which traditionally takes place as part of the Pitti Filati trade fair (Florence), was held this year under the motto "Masterclass Edition". This means that the design talents had to knit and realize their creative designs themselves. This is a particular challenge, as the creative work begins with the yarn and the design process starts with the development of surfaces and shapes instead of using ready-made fabrics.

Dyrna was immediately selected from the 36 participants from fashion schools all over the world for the round of ten finalists and was invited to present his outfit to the expert jury and the international audience in Florence for three days.

Even though in the end the three main prizes went to participants from Reutlingen University, the London College of Fashion and the Politecnico di Milano in a neck-and-neck race, the outfit, which Pascal Dyrna created in painstaking work in the diverse laboratories of the HSNR, impressed with its special design, sophisticated details and very high technical quality. A great success at international level.

"The combined apprenticeship in creative and technical subjects, which is the unique selling point of our Design degree programmes, is what makes such successes possible," says Ellen Bendt, who, as a professor of Fashion Design with a specialization in Knitwear and Innovative Product Design, has regularly supervised the competition participants from the Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology since 2012.