Fashioning the Future Awards

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

Last week saw the 2009 International Student Awards for Sustainability in Fashion.

Fashioning the Future brings together a global community of creative thinkers and doers, designers, innovators and entrepreneurs ready to offer the fashion industry opportunities for the future.

Building on the success of the 2008 awards, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion has developed Fashioning the Future to include a wider range of disciplines, now with seven separate awards, celebrating and promoting a generation of emerging talent for the fashion industry of the future.

Believing that the possibilities for our future lie in the ingenuity of creative minds; Fashioning the future is the leading international platform for celebrating innovation in sustainable fashion design, development and communication. The underlying issue of consumption, the theme for the 2008 awards,  continues to be a crucial issue to fashion and its sustainability. Aligned to this, the theme for 2009 is Water, and there is a specific cross-discipline award focusing on this.

Clothes made from recycled cotton paper, exquisite design that need less laundering, hand crafted luxurious hemp satin pieces and hand-knitted pieces that are fastened onto basic wardrobe staples to create a completely adjustable wardrobe to cherish are just some of the winning ideas from this year’s Fashioning the Future Awards, an international student competition run by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion.

Fashioning the future winners announced at City Hall.

 

 

The winners were announced at last night’s glittering ceremony hosted by fashion commentator and broadcaster Caryn Franklin, at the top of City Hall overlooking the London skyline. Awards were presented by Centre for Sustainable Fashion ambassador Jo Wood, BBC 1 ONE show presenter and Observer journalist Lucy Siegle and Duncan Goose CEO of charity ONE Water and Paul de Zylva (London Sustainable Development Commission).

Each winner demonstrated that being sustainable does not mean compromising on style or quality and were announced as:

Zoe Fletcher won the Enterprise & Communication Initiative for a Future Fashion Industry Award (Highly Commended: Ruby Hoette and Julia Crew)

Varun Gambhir won the Role of Materials in a Sustainable Fashion Industry Award (Highly Commended: Karina Micheal)

Mary Hanlon won the Systems for a Sustainable Fashion Industry Award

Miriam Rhida won the Design for a Thriving Fashion Industry Award (Highly Commended: Eleanor Dorrien-Smith and On Ying Lai)

Emma Rigby won the Water - The Right for All Citizens of this Planet Award (Highly Commended: Anne Prahl).

Major votes of support

 

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “This competition has clearly sparked a wealth of cracking ideas from the capital’s young designers bringing together style, practicality and the environment. It’s a brilliant example of our London Leaders programme in action. London is internationally recognised as one of the world’s greatest fashion centres for good reason and it is through the type of innovation displayed by these young designers that we will retain this preeminent position.”

Professor Frances Corner said: “As a London Leader for 2009 it has been my job to demonstrate sustainability in action - Fashioning the Future has reached out to a global community of students who have submitted ideas that prove that the next generation of fashion industry professionals have the ideas, ingenuity and skills to revolutionise the fashion industry from within. Together we are provoking, challenging and questioning the fashion status quo to find new sustainable solutions for our industry and to encourage and motivate others to do the same.”

John Plowman, Chair of the London Sustainable Development Commission, said “The London Sustainable Development Commission’s London Leaders programme is delighted to support this pursuit and celebration of innovation and creative talent. Fashion has a huge global impact on the environment, society and the economy. Finding more resource-efficient solutions, providing benefit to all involved, therefore represents a priority for the fashion industry of the future.”

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