Ethical Fashion Forum Innovation Award 2010

 

by Deborah Miarkowska

The Fairtrade Foundation has teamed up with the Ethical Fashion Forum to launch its major sustainable design competition, INNOVATION Award. For the first time, the competition will run a Fairtrade cotton category sponsored by Tesco, which will be judged by fashion model Laura Bailey. The award will recognize designers and brands which are either already working with Fairtrade certified cotton or are looking to use Fairtrade cotton in their collections going forward.

Applications should demonstrate an understanding of the principles behind Fairtrade and have a plan in place to increase the amount of cotton in their range. The winning designer or brand will be offered support from the Fairtade Foundation to become a Fairtrade licensee, allowing them to apply the FAIRTRADE Mark to their designs.

The winner of the award will be offered advice and assistance from Clothing at Tesco’s UK F&F team to develop a capsule collection made from Fairtade cotton. Overall competition winners will showcase their designs at the premiere London fashion trade show, ESTETHICA in London.

The Fairtrade element to the competition helps mark the Fifth Anniversary of Fairtrade cotton, a campaign which aims to re-position Fairtrade cotton at the cutting edge of aspirational design and fashion. Laura Bailey said: ‘The cotton growers urgently need the future of fashion to be Fairtrade, so this is a fantastic opportunity for the future talent in British fashion to use Fairtrade cotton to produce some innovative designs.’

Applications for the INNOVATION competition will open on Wednesday 12 May 2010, ahead of Graduate Fashion Week (6-10 June), and will close on Sunday 6 June 2010. Application forms can be downloaded from www.ethicalfashionforum.com.

Designers and businesses are chosen on the basis of outstanding design and product standards, as well as innovation in relation to Fairtrade, social and environmental sustainability.

The overall judging panel include Vogue.com’s Dolly Jones, Laura Bailey, the Ethical Fashion Forum’s Josie Nicholson, Fairtrade Foundation’s Victoria Waugh and a Clothing at Tesco fashion expert.

INNOVATION was set up by the Ethical Fashion Forum (www.ethicalfashion forum.com) to showcase and create marketing opportunities for emerging designers and businesses in the ethical fashion arena.

Last year’s winners were Henrietta Ludgate, Lalesso, MIA and Mark Liu, whose designs included high quality finishing and modern cutting edge design using traditional techniques to create a commercial look.

Tamsin Lejeune, Director and Founder of The Ethical Fashion Forum says: ‘INNOVATION is a great way for fashion designers to get their work recognized whilst putting sustainable fashion at the heart of their business.’

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