Fashion House is designed to be the first pan-European event of its kind. The series will be unveiled in September on Channel 4 in the U.K. and on MTV in Italy, and in November on TV3 in Sweden, and will air in primetime slots.
Fashion House will involve twenty young European designers from four European countries - the UK, Italy, Sweden and France - who will be competing to become Europe's top young designer. The series will run for seven consecutive weeks, from late September to early November, and will debut during London Fashion Week. The young contestants - students and newly-graduated designers from the top European fashion schools - will then move to Rome to the 'Fashion House' location set within Rome's famed Costume and Fashion Academy where they will live and work on the winning collection that will lead to an internship at Stella McCartney.
Every week television audiences at home will be judging the young designers' creations and casting their vote, via text messages, fixed phone or interactive television voting, while on the set influential members of the fashion industry, famous designers and celebrity guests will be asked to give their opinion on the creativity and execution of the clothing designed by the contestants. The series will close with a big catwalk event at the end of which a high-profile international jury will nominate the overall winner among the four national finalists.
This on-air contest is designed to give young talented Europeans the opportunity to display their creativity and showcase their creations. "This format suits perfectly our commitment to design and the latest in fashionable trends, giving us the opportunity to embrace young and fresh creativity. It also offers a fully integrated platform that will allow us to connect with our young fashionable customers", says Pekka Rantala, Vice President, Marketing Services, Nokia Mobile Phones, Europe, Africa and Gulf region.
Fashion House will feature relevant interactive wireless and online components such as text messaging for voting and multimedia messaging (MMS) for image-based communications between the young designers and the television audience - via the national Fashion House websites. General information will be available on www.fashionhouse.tv while the Fashion House companion websites - featuring daily updated information, exclusive images, chats and clips - will be hosted by the respective broadcaster in each region.
"Working with companies such as Nokia and Channel 4 who are committed to creativity and breakthrough ideas, we have developed a format that highlights the flair and know-how of young European designers," says Alan Friedman, President & CEO of FBC. "And with the added pan-regional element, we will be offering high-quality TV entertainment to a wide audience, while giving these young fashion designers the chance of fulfilling their dream."
The Fashion House format was conceived and developed by Vesna Pivcevic (FBC Head of Development) in close association with Channel 4 and Lion Television, one of the UK's most successful independent production companies.
Heather Rabbatts, Managing Director of 4Learning at Channel 4, says: "Our programmes aim to excite and inspire audiences not just to watch, but to get up, have a go, get involved. These young design students in Rome exemplify just some of Europe's amazing young talent. Who knows just what they will inspire? Fashion House will look outwards - at different nationalities' and personalities' attitudes to design and style - and it'll look inwards too - at how a glamorous, but often secretive industry works. Behind the glitz and popping flash bulbs we'll see real talent hard at work, creativity under pressure. As always, we're delighted to be part of something which will leave nothing to anyone's expectations."
Nick Catliff, Managing Director of Lion Television, says: "This is a brilliant opportunity for twenty young designers, and it is also an exciting and original new format that will produce fresh shows with attractive characters, compelling storylines, culture clashes and rivalries all set in the glamorous, but tough world of fashion."
The series' integrated strategy was developed with the support of SponsorCom, the sponsorship and content division of MediaCom, the UK's largest planning and buying agency.
The series is executive-produced by Mike Morrison (of FBC TV) and Nick Catliff (of Lion Television) and is the first reality production for FBC's new entertainment division. The series will be co-produced by FBC, Lion Television and Sweden's Titan TV. Production is already underway in Rome.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.
www.nokia.com
www.nokia.com/fashionhouse
About FBC
FBC is a Europe-based television format, production and distribution company with an unrivalled syndicated network of terrestrial, cable and satellite distribution reaching over 200 million television households in 96 countries worldwide. FBC produces news magazines, sports, technology and entertainment programming and offers a range of high-quality formats and programs that include the award-winning business news program World Business. FBC is a leading specialist in advertiser-funded programming with a range of new and innovative programs that include The Players (sponsored by Oracle) and eLife (sponsored by Cisco Systems). FBC is also a leader in the airline programming market, offering the highest quality of inflight entertainment with IHT WORLD Special Edition, Business of Sport and Tech Watch, carried on 26 of the worlds leading airlines. In addition to its television productions, FBC is majority owner of Miaeconomia, a leading Italian personal finance website and multimedia venture, co-owned by the Telecom Italia group. FBC has also forged important strategic alliances with blue-chip international partners that include the International Herald Tribune, RAI, Telecom Italia, Telecinco, Skandia Media Invest, Stream and CNBC; and is a leading provider of content to SKY TG24, the all-news channel part of SKY Italia, the new Italian pay-tv satellite platform (owned by News Corporation). With headquarters in London and offices in Europe, the U.S.A. and Asia, FBC is headed by Alan Friedman (Chairman & CEO) and ranks among its top executives: Mike Morrison (Deputy Group CEO), Luca Artesi (CEO of FBC Italia) and Vesna Pivcevic (Head of Development).
www.fbcmedia.com
About Channel 4
Channel 4 was established by Act of Parliament in 1982 and enjoys unique status as the world's only major public service broadcaster funded entirely by commercial activity. Placing a premium on "innovation and experiment in the form and content" of its programming, it has been Britain's most cutting edge, controversial and creative broadcaster of the last two decades. Channel 4 commissions all its programmes from third parties and, almost single-handed, has helped nurture and grow a vibrant community of more than 1,400 independent producers in the UK. Channel 4 has branched out into pay-TV with the acclaimed launches of FilmFour and E4 and is planning further brand-building initiatives in interactive television and the Internet.
About 4Learning
4Learning is the educational arm of Channel 4 Television. It enables Channel 4 to fulfill its public service requirement to broadcast 330 hours of schools television programming and support for at least 8 hours a week of adult television programming, each year. It commissions; programmes for the Channel 4's schools television schedules, multi-media learning resources for sale to schools and colleges, online, print and phone support for adult education programmes. 4Learning supports Channel 4's adult educational programming with websites on www.channel4.com, enabling viewers to extend their enjoyment of their programmes, or even their participation with them - Think TV, Jamie's Kitchen and Time Team's Big Dig websites are recent examples. The Fashion House website will sit within IDEASFACTORY, Channel 4's on-line and off-line guide to getting in and getting on in the creative industries. IDEASFACTORY is also commissioned and managed by 4Learning.
www.channel4.com/ideasfactory
About Lion Television
Lion Television was founded in 1997 by Jeremy Mills, Nick Catliff and Richard Bradley. Since then Lion has become one of the most successful independent production companies in the United Kingdom. In its first five years Lion has produced over 670 hours of television. Last year alone, Lion produced over 170 programmes and is currently producing programmes for all UK terrestrial channels as well as cable, satellite and network for UK and US broadcasters. In the US the slate of programmes includes productions for CBC network as well as PBS (WGBH, WNET and OPB), Discovery Channel, Discovery Health, The Learning Channel, The Travel Channel, Fox, HBO, A & E, and MSNBC. The company currently has over 200 production staff at its London, Glasgow, New York and Los Angeles bases. The Lion Directors also serve as consultants to German, Swedish, Belgian, Spanish, Canadian, Italian and Danish broadcasters, as well as to the BBC and Channel 4.
www.liontv.co.uk
For more information please contact:
Francesca d'Andrea
Director of Marketing & Public Relations
FBC
Tel: + 39 06 32 47 41
M: + 39 348 44 51 741
E-Mail: fdandrea@fbcmedia.com
Nokia Mobile Phones
Communications
Tel. +358 7180 45667
Email: nokia.mobile.phones@nokia.com
www.nokia.com