Percy Irausquin

At the age of 20 Percy Irausquin left Aruba behind to study fashion at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 2000, one year after graduation, he enrolled in the Master programme Fashion Institute Arnhem. His first couture collection ‘Inspiration Amoureuse’, inspired by his five older sisters in fact, was awarded with the Frans Molenaar Couture Prize and the Robijn Fashion Award, both in 2002. Percy however decided not to surf this first wave of success and left for Paris where he learned the art of corset making - the necessary architectural skill required for making glamour dresses - from Hubert Barrère, the famous corset maker for the likes of Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Madonna.

After an eye opening working experience at Christian Lacroix, Percy Irausquin moved back to Amsterdam where he dedicated a couture collection named Edmee Enbias to his great grandmother, exploring the difficult ‘bias cut’ technique that would become his trade mark. In 2004 he launched his first prêt à porter collection. Following a lawsuit he had to change his label’s name to PRC. Shortly after, Zantman Group contracted Percy and together they launched his first prêt à porter line “Collection PRC” in January 2008. Percy died, totally unforeseen, on august 14th this year, only hours after his nomination for the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Award was announced. The Dutch Fashion Foundation is still in deliberation how Percy’s nomination will be proceeded on the evening of the award show.

Academy of Dutch Fashion Design

To gain an indirect, objective and independent vote the Dutch Fashion Foundation has invited a select group of national decision makers and key-players with a cultural and economical background into the Academy of Dutch Fashion Design. The members of the Academy have all individually listed their top ten of most promising Dutch fashion designers, with a result of 28 designers. Looking at the ranking in which they were chosen and the criteria set up for this award, a selection was formed of 10 designers.

Members of the Academy of Dutch Fashion Design: Amsterdam International Fashion Week - Arnhem Fashion Biënnale - Dutch Fashion Foundation - Fonds voor Beeldende Kunst Vormgeving en Bouwkunst - HTNK - Intres – Klavers van Engelen - Modefabriek - MODINT – Monique van Heist - Prins Bernard Foundation - World Fashion Centre

International pre-jury From an international point of view the precommittee members of the jury Marc Gysemans (Gysemans Clothing Industry, Belgium), Valentina Maggi (headhunter luxury brands; director of Design Practice at Floriane de Saint-Pierre & Associés, Paris), and Diane Pernet (talentscout and journalist A Shaded View on Fashion, Paris) then choose the 5 finalists for the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Awards 2009. These designers will be presented to the full international jury on November 6th.

Regulations

Each fashion designer to participate in the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Awards is selected by the criteria that he/she: 

- is graduated from an (inter)national fashion academy, 
- has the Dutch nationality, 
- has its own registered enterprise, 
- has developed at least five collections under his/her own label, 
- has distinguished talent, a unique style and knows
to present this convincingly, 
- has already taken strategic steps to imbed in the international fashion field.