DHL, the world’s leading international express services provider, announced on March 17 Hiroaki Sueyasu, designer of KIDDIL as the winner of the 8th DHL Designer Award which recognizes young, up-and-coming fashion designers with international potential. As the Official Logistics Partner of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week TOKYO’s 2015-16 Autumn/Winter Collection, DHL supported the transportation services for the event.

For the DHL Designer Award, DHL Japan and the Japan Fashion Week Organization (JFW Organization) selected fashion designers from collections announced at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week TOKYO(MBFWT). The winning fashion designer was selected based on creativity and design, and the potential to go global. The award’s supplementary prize, which offers practical assistance to winners with an overseas shipping credit worth 500,000 yen, has contributed to helping selected designers launch or expand their brand overseas. A commemorative plaque and the overseas shipment credit worth 500,000 yen was presented to Sueyasu by Junko Takata, Marketing Communications Manager, Commercial, DHL Express Japan, in an award ceremony.

Hiroaki Sueyasu, winner of the DHL Designer Award for the 2015-16 Autumn/Winter Collection, is the designer behind the KIDILL brand and he has been participating in MBFWT since the 2014-15 Autumn/Winter season. Sueyasu launched the KIDILL brand in 2014 which has made its presence felt in markets such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, the US and Taiwan, and is expected to further expand into Europe including the UK and France.

“This is a great honor,” said Sueyasu upon receiving the award. “I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who has provided support for KIDILL’s collections and initiatives. We are not generating a high level of business from overseas markets at the moment, but there is growing demand particularly in Asia. The shipping support from DHL will be of great help for our worldwide business expansion to the US and Europe. With this award, we will strive to take on new projects with a global audience in mind.”

Taketo Yamakawa, President and Representative Director, DHL Express Japan said, “Our company has been hosting the DHL Designer Award for 4 years to assist Japan’s talented, motivated and up-and-coming designers to expand their business overseas and go global. I am pleased to see that these efforts are contributing to the international competitiveness of Japanese designer brands, as well as their ability to get their vision for fashion and design to a global clientele. As the global logistics leader in Japan, DHL is proud to help enhance the internationalization of the fashion industry.”