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MANILA, Philippines—As China prepared to make its star turn on the world stage, Triumph International, one of the world’s largest undergarments manufacturers, held the grand finals of its global undergarment design competition—Triumph Inspiration Award ’08—in Beijing.

It was no coincidence that it took place in the run-up to the Olympics in Beijing. Triumph’s fashion and design competence has long been associated with a broad involvement in the area of sport, especially for women.

The Triumph Inspiration Award, inaugurated this year, invited students from prestigious international design schools to create a conceptual showpiece-set (under-wired bra and brief), based on the theme, Female Fascination.

Thirty-one winning entries from national competitions held in 70 design schools in different countries made it to the Beijing finals.

The competition challenged the students to explore the wonderful facets of undergarments. Their task was to interpret the chosen theme: Female Fascination, and come up with a design that could be translated into a commercial garment, produced in a limited edition, and sold in selected Triumph stores worldwide.

A young and impressionable student from the School of Art and Design, St. Benilde College, Ralph Michael Ng, was the Philippines’ entry. His interpretation of the theme, Female Fascination, was a sensual, light, and dreamy showpiece made from thin veneered capiz and silk chiffon.

The winning pieces were presented to an illustrious jury composed of the brilliant design team of Victor and Rolf; model and photographer Helena Christensen; German fashion and commercial photographer of the popular Guess ad campaigns, Ellen von Unwerth; Sarah, head buyer and creative director of the fashion concept store Colette; Lu Yan, top Chinese model; and Jan Rosenberg, global head of international sales and marketing of Triumph International.

Interaction

“The Triumph Inspiration Award triggers fruitful interaction between the fashion house Triumph and young up-and-coming fashion designers from all over the world. This campaign integrates our great fashion expertise and supports young hopefuls,” said Rosenberg.

By requiring “outsiders” to take a fresh look at a brand that has been around for the last 120 years with a history of lingerie as functional object, and from here, design new forms using creativity and personal aesthetic expression, Triumph marks a new age of diversity and aesthetic pluralism.

We are living in an age where design should make life enjoyable. If Triumph promised functionality, durability, and efficiency then, its design ideology now brings pleasure, freedom, escape, fantasy, and yes, beauty.

A far more personal and fluid ideal, it is the lingerie that must fit the woman, whoever she may be, wherever she may be.

“What we love most is the fact that the students were asked to free themselves of the commercial side of things—almost no restraints were put on their creativity,” said designers Viktor & Rolf.

Today’s lingerie market is a demanding consumers market, and women don’t just have one look, there are so many options.

Even women with tried-and-settled tastes will seek variety some time. Just look at the power of fashion to adapt and endure. We expect designs not only to provide function but give pleasure, grant our wishes and desires.

What an expressive age ours is, it is an age of look and feel that challenges us to think differently about form and function. Buying underwear today is like buying a nice dress. It is a designer experience.

Winners

The top three winners: Japan, Germany, and Norway demonstrated this new aesthetic to the delight of a predominantly female audience composed of designers, artists, news correspondents, retailers, and professors.

What a spectacular Triumph lingerie catwalk show the finalists came up with, it was every visual merchandiser’s dream. It had the predominantly female audience visually hooked and enthralled.

The winners will be invited to Hong Kong to meet a design team who will work out all the details, perfect approaches, test material, and finalize the winning work for further product development.

In 2009, the commercial interpretation of the winning design will be sold in select Triumph stores with the winner’s name and concept on the hang tags.

On top of this, the winner gets euro 15,000 in prize money. The awards were held in Da Shan Zi, Beijing’s Soho, an area that’s home to the most vibrant contemporary art making in the world today.

The Da Shan Zi area was built up in the ’50s as part of a joint China-East Germany program for a military arms factory complex.

The buildings were designed to withstand strong earthquakes and let in as much natural light as possible. In the late 1980s the factories were gradually vacated and the buildings began to be taken over by Beijing’s art community.

Today, one of its buildings, Factory Hall 706 (Switzerland’s National House for the duration of the Olympics) was the setting for a sizzling catwalk show. Who would have thought that this complex of brick and steel buildings done in the cold and detached Bauhaus architectural style during the Cultural Revolution, would be the venue for an inspiring international competition on undergarment design?

What graceful irony in post-Mao, pre-Olympic Beijing! This is the triumph of our age.

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• Afternoon tea in style
• From the boardroom to the gym, and back
• ‘The Liaison Manager’ by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon:

• South Africa’s most awarded wine now here
• How to cook the best sweet and sour pork
• Cinnamon apple fritters
• Cyrille Soenen to open his own bistro
• Food for thought for the health-conscious
• Don’t contaminate yourself with toxic emotions
• Is strong attraction for another due to past life?
• Philip Stein project benefits the Red Cross
• Lessons from the ‘bahay na bato’
• Baubles, bangles and beads
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• Without Batting An Eyelash :  Despedida for Cristina / Maurice Arcache
• Makeover 911 :  Get that Dita Von Teese skin and look / Kinny Salas
• Knockout! :  Why you should try going nude (lipstick) / Ria Francisco-Prieto
• Country Cooking :  Cyrille Soenen to open his own bistro / Mickey Fenix
• Kitchen Rescue :  How to cook the best sweet and sour pork / Reggie Aspiras
• The Consumer :  Food for thought for the health-conscious / Marietta Velasco Giron
• Inside Out :  Don’t contaminate yourself with toxic emotions / Cory Quirino