2011 Winners
Unique Design Award
The Unique Design Award was offered for the demonstration of unique skills and abilities in the creation of a concept or collection that provides a new definition of fashion where living within nature’s limits and putting human wellbeing centre stage, is aligned to desirable, feasible and viable manifestations of fashion.
Winner Lara Torres
Lara Torres‘s “An impossible wardrobe for the invisible” is a project that examines the modern fashion designer’s task and opens a discussion on the current state of fashion. As a designer in today’s industry awareness and strong critical thought is key to tackling the fast and destructive nature of existing production models.
Through this project Lara looked for a way of producing fashion that makes the wearer highly conscious of their clothing choices, using a video installation as medium she communicated ideas relating to the inherent disposability of so many of the things we buy.
The temporary water soluble clothing shown in the videos may not be practical but it reminds us of our own mortality and encourages us to see and remember our own impermanence and respect the many lives supported by the planet around us. An existing technology was used to create garments which whilst being essentially un-wearable communicate an important question to the fashion industry and consumer; if fashion is so emotionally transient and disposable then why shouldn’t it be truly disposable?
Unique Materials and Processes Award
The Unique Materials and Processes Award was offered for the development of a new approach to materials choice and use in fashion design and the development of new textile design and technology.
Winner Evelyn Lebis
For Evelyn Lebis, the discussion of how fashion can be more sustainable often centre’s on well trodden ground, such as organic and fairtrade cotton and the re-use and recycling of textiles. It’s rare that we think about how designers can create textiles and garments that improve the users experience and increase the potential for taking pleasure in what we wear. Clothes can and should be more than a quick fix, pick me up purchase.
When technology and fashion effectively interact, new possibilities emerge; clothes can respond to their wearers; moods emotions and movement. Evelyn worked with engineers to develop e-textile technology which responds to the wearers movements. She designed costumes for dancers that demonstrate the potential in this technology, with embellishments that light up as the performers moves.
In the future this technology could be applied in every day wear offering a creative and interactive approach to fashion that challenges the conventions of function and form in fashion design. The process also explored the possibilities that can emerge when scientist, engineers and fashion designers work together.
Unique Communications Award
The Unique Communications Award was offered for work that displayed evidence of the crucial role of communication in fashion and that engaged a new definition of fashion that could make a positive contribution to the world.
Winner Christian Frank Muller
Christian Frank Muller’s +ADD and +REPAIR gives clothing an identity by using the garments as a vehicle to tell the owners story. The wear and tear becomes something that is celebrated and highlighted, offering an insight into the life and experiences of the owner and the garment. The project is high bred; encouraging both individual customisation alongside skilled repair and maintenance services.
Old clothes can be turned into desirable new items by repairing, improving, adding and creating the garments CV. The garment becomes co-branded with the original designers identity and the +ADD and +REPAIR identity which represents the garments evolution with the wearer.
This is a totally new approach in the fashion industry – branding the history of the garment is valuing the textile itself in a new way. The main goal is to teach people that a garment should be something lively and precious, something that can last for more than one season. The concept can also be extended to +PRINT +EMBROIDERY +DYE e.t.c creating a completely new way of looking at what a fashion brand can do and be.
Unique Enterprise Award
The Unique Enterprise Award was offered for the consideration of the opportunities that arise from the necessity to solve the issues around water, waste, wellbeing, energy, equality and biodiversity.
Winner Alice Payne
According to Alicy Payne there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a sustainable fashion system. Existing companies will need to evolve, change the way they design and produce garments, offer services rather than products, and engage with the end user to consider the end of life and future lives of their garments. The ThinkLifecycle content management system (CMS) acts as a bridge between existing industry practices and new, redirected practice in which sustainability is at the forefront of commercial thinking. Its chief aim is to embed lifecycle thinking within a company at a daily, operational level.
The notion of ‘lifecycle’ is drawn from the natural world, in which, as McDonough and Braungart (2002) describe, all waste becomes food for the next lifecycle. This provides a model for developing materials and processes which mimic this natural order.
ThinkLifecycle is designed so that the data from users can be grouped around the phases of a garment’s lifecycle. Through adding comments, ideas and research to the main knowledgebase, all actors within a company can make their voices heard regarding specific ways their company can innovate for a more sustainable industry. In this way, ThinkLifecycle can be a powerful transformative tool encouraging a culture of conversation, collaboration and innovation within a company. It is designed to be widely applicable across the industry, as the system can be installed on the existing server or intranet of any fashion company, large or small. ThinkLifecycle represents a practical, viable step towards a fashion system which can flourish within ecological limits.
Unique Balance Award
The Unique Balance Award was offered for the contribution to the fashion through visualising ways in which to balance the co-existence of humans with the earth’s other species.
Winner Sara Emilie Terp Hansen
Sara Emilie Terp Hansen has taken cork, a material usually associated with the wine industry and given it a fashion forward application. The cork industry is currently threatened by the growth of plastic alternatives to our classic bottle stoppers. This threatens the continued existence of cork forests worldwide, an important natural habitat and source of livelihood for many communities. Realising the importance of this material and the threat to cork forests sparked the idea of exploring applications for cork in a fashion industry that is especially in need of meaningful and innovative sustainable solutions.
Cork proved to be flexible, waterproof, warm, naturally unique and extremely durable and is a perfect solution for practical outerwear with a surprising and engaging aesthetic. It has great potential in cycle wear and many other cross overs between sportswear and fashion. Cork is also easily recyclable and biodegradable and so as well as having great durability in the first life of the garment offers excellent potential for re-use and re-purposing.
The Body Shop One to Watch Award
The Body Shop One to Watch Award was offered for recognition of a concept with real potential to provide a meaningful solution to the environmental impact of the fashion industry.
Winner Ashley Brock
Ashley Brock’s up-cycling concept uses resources already available in existing products, and does so in a fresh, unique and appealing way. While there are designers creating beautiful and innovative up-cycled garments, it is difficult to expand production past a certain size because of the varied nature of the starting materials. Ashley created a fresh, new, scalable approach to up-cycling using discarded garments through the develpment of a single pattern piece in 3 different sizes, which interlock to maximize re-use, and can be cut from just about anything.
The project focuses on working with garments that are plentiful in thrift stores, and that had relatively consistent textiles and basic shapes. Four example garments were created: jeans, men’s wool suits, long linen shift dresses and blazers. These new and intriguing designs, which appeal even to people who would never set foot in a thrift store, are informed by a sustainable process and are beautiful because of this challenge, not in spite of it.
The concept is designed to be scalable, so it can be built into a larger business, while still maintaining ecological and aesthetic integrity. This way it can have a greater impact on the fashion industry, demonstrating that sustainable fashion can be beautiful, ethical and profitable at the same time.
Shortlisted Applicants
Applications for the Fashioning the Future Awards 2011 were received from over 30 countries around the world. From our shortlisted applicants here are some names to look out for:
Aiman Sabari, Alice Demirijian, Amy Harris, Anna Podlewska, Anne McCourt, Antonio Gianasi, Athina Gkini, Caspar Boehme, Ceri Jones, Charlie Ross, Chun Hei Hung, Cristina Sabaiduc, Danielle Testa, Elizabeth de Groot, Emma Dobson, Emma Randles, Fioen van Balgooi, Fiona Clements, Gemma Land, Glinda Escobar, Hanna Niezbrzycka, Hannah Li, Harriet Saywood, Harsh Kothari, Helen Furber, Holly Dutton, Holly Pressdee, Hsiu-Hui Hsu, Jean Saung, Jessica Robertson, Julia Pleadin, Juliana Ker, Kana Tojo, Kanika Sood, Karishma Shahani, Katharina Thiel, Katie Lane, Krit Tula, Laerke Anderson Hooge, Laura Martinez, Lauren Wroe, Linda Vydra, Lisa Maria Vorreiter, Lisa Vaglund, Liz Black, Lu Liu, Mari Chesterman, Marlis Lucila Piirsalu, Marta Konovalov, Michal Katz, Ming Fung Choi, Miranda Kaloudis, Monika Gabriela Dorniak, Naomi Rowland, Omer Jamal, Ruchika Bansal, Sarah Robbe, Shamees Aden, Sharka Chaloupkova, Sivarama Prasad Darla, Sophie Hawkins, Stephanie Wong, Stevy Wang, Catalina Velandia Velasquez, Vivienne Vine, Volker Koch, Waiyee Chong, Wei-Chen Jenn Lee, Yingzhi Luo, Yuka Maeda, Zoe Yarwood.
