And then our guests had a unique opportunity to become the first audience for the premiere demonstration of a collection of fur accessories for Autumn-winter 2009-2010 season by Slava Zaitsev and MKS company (Marina and Sergey Kaminsky, St.-Petersburg).

Traditionally on the first day of the show a charitable action in support of handicapped children and dedicated to the Year of equal opportunities declared in Russia was held. The action was organized by KORDON company together with the Department of consumer market and services of Moscow. Participants of CHAPEAU have gathered boxes with headwear and accessories that are to be sent to orphanages and shelters. It is so wonderful to see that each year more and more companies are willing to join this action.

We take this opportunity to say “Thank you!” once again to everyone who supported us in organizing and holding the charitable action – the one who longs for charity and generosity find life, justice and a good name!

A novelty of this year was holding the final of the contest for the best headwear in Tricolour style on the first day of the show . On August 22nd the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation is celebrated. The father of the Tricolour is Peter the First. On January 20th 1705 he issued an edict according to which a white-blue-red flag must be raised on trade ships. He himself has made a draft and decided the order of the horizontal stripes.

The contest was announced in July 2009. Contestants designed and created headwear for the contest for one month only! The qualifying stage of the contest was held by providing the contest headwear to the organizing committee of CHAPEAU-2009 for their evaluation by the members of professional judging panel. The final of the contest evaluated by the celebrity judges was held in a shape of a demonstration of all the headwear that had passed the qualifying stage.

Helen Mekhik company became the winner of the contest, and the designer who had created the best headwear in the Tricolour style was awarded with a $ 1000 prize!

The main event of the second day of the show was the contest of headwear manufacturers – The headwear of CHAPEAU-2009. The contest was held in a several nominations and was evaluated by the professional judging panel represented by:

1. Raisa Kirsanova – MA, art critic, professor
2. Lyudmila Merkulova – President of the National Institute of modern design, Moscow
3. Violetta Litvinova – designer, Moscow
4. Tatiana Skuratovskaya – President of inter-regional social fund of support f cultural and family values in Russia – “Opora Otechestva”
5. Tcharna Waines – international fur expert, Canada
6. Hartvig Heemeyer – founder and CEO of Friedrich W. Schneider, an exclusive representative of STETSON USA in Germany, Germany
7. Rokie Bernstein – founder and president of Snowflake Trading Corp. Ltd, Canada
8. Thomas Tenenbaum – Director general of Tense Fabrics company, Australia
9. Anastasia Kretova and Dmitry Larionov – Eastern Europe representatives of the Finnish fur auction – SAGA Furs, Moscow
10. Oksana Moroz – Marketing director (Eastern Europe) of the North American Fur Auction (NAFA).

As always at the head of the judging panel was People’s artist of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, laureate of the State Award of Russia, Doctor of Arts professor Slava Zaitsev. Collections were evaluated by means of open voting by 5-points system.

The third day of the exhibition was dedicated to children and youth. In the morning the students’ contest “Future of CHAPEAU-2009” was held. We need to stress that this year the student contest was especially interesting and impressive. That was noted by absolutely all the judges with no exception. It is very gratifying to see that the new generation of designers is not only numerous (this year we have received 20 applications for participation in the “Future of CHAPEAU” contest), but also very talented and out of ordinary.

Another part of the day was fully dedicated to children – the young talents festival “SHAPYONOK-2009” was held. This year 13 children collective and fashion theatres have participated in the festival. We are happy that children collectives every year accept our invitation to participate in the festival. It is also very important for participants themselves, for experienced manufacturers and for this direction of creative work in general. Children are our future, a fresh air breath. Often their vision is objective. They have a keen eye and their fantasy is unbounded. We thank our young participants for their love and devotion to their work!

A few words about the festival itself. Authors of collections presented are children up to 16 years old. Children theatres and costume studios participate. Our festival is famous for the fact that every participant receives probably the most precious prize – a qualified and objective evaluation from professionals in the fashion industry. Our judges tell their opinion of each collection presented, show the right direction, stress the merits, point out the imperfections. And what else is needed for those who make their first steps in the world of fashion!

As usually apart from the contest programme CHAPEAU has offered to its participants and guests business and entertaining programmes – within the bounds of the exhibition seminars and conferences and also out-of-competition of headwear and accessories demonstrations were held.

On the last day of the show a traditional lottery by the numbers in invitations among the visitors was held. Prizes for the lottery – headwear and accessories were provided by participants of CHAPEAU-2009.

At the ceremony of the official closing of the exhibition held right after the lottery the results of the show were resumed and the winners of the contests were declared and received their awards.

The winners of CHAPEAU-2009 are:

- in the “Best collection of  headwear from knitted fabrics” nomination – collection “Improvisation”, ELINA company, designer Elina Dorokhina, average point – 3,9. In this nomination 2 participants had the same average point, in this situation the priority was given to ELINA company since the head of the judging panel had given it the highest point.

- in the “Best collection of headwear from felt and velour” nomination – collection “Haute Couture Autumn-Spring 2009-2010”, EXCLUSIVE company, average point – 4,7. Slava Zaitsev had given 6 points out of 5 possible to this collection, thus added one point to the overall score.

- in the “Best collection of headwear from fabrics” nomination – collection “For strong and stylish!”, DENKOR company, collection author – Vasily Kornilov, average point – 4,6.

- Special prize in the “Best headwear from fur” nomination – collection “Autumn-winter 2009-2010”, MONOMAKH company, collection author – Andrey Pavlushkin.

- Special prize in the “Best collection of combined headwear” – collection “Moscow warrior-women”, ELENA LASHUK, collection author – Elena Lashuik.

 

And the winner of the Crown of the Headwear Empire in 2009 was awarded to
EXCLUSIVE company, Saint-Petersburg.

 

Also the results of the students’ work contest “Future of CHAPEAU-2009” were announced.

The 3rd prize was given to Natalia Ashaikina, Russian State university of tourism and service, collection “In a mist cocoon”, average point – 4,5. According to the average point 3 students had a claim for the award, the priority was given to Natalia since the head of the judging panel Slava Zaitsev had given Natalia Ashaikina the higher point than to the rest of the contestants.
	The 2nd prize was awarded to Ekaterina Senchina, Moscow State Textile university named after Kosygin, collection “The other fairytales”, average point – 4,7.
The 1st prize was awarded to Yana Khilchenko, Moscow State Textile University named after Kosygin, collection – “Cyborgs”.

Summing up the results it is necessary to say that the exhibition has proven that CHAPEAU is a business tool which cannot be disregarded despite of the crisis and other economical difficulties. We are gratified to our participants and guests of the show for their support and promise that we keep doing our best to keep CHAPEAU the event that cannot be missed.

We are looking forward to seeing you again at CHAPEAU-2010 in August 2010!