The search for creativity does not stop: the deadline of the international call for new ideas in communicating  sustainable fashion has been extended to 18 April.

The Imagining Sustainable Fashion Award 2023, open to young creatives in the fashion and communication industry, and especially communication professionals, fashion designers, stylists, photographers, illustrators and artists from all over the world has solicited a great response but at the same time numerous requests for flexibility on the deadline.  The Award sets a challenging target for candidates who have in many cases also requested further information regarding the guidelines of the competition.

“Our expectations for transparent and at the same time engaging comunication are getting higher every year – said Anna Detheridge, president of Connecting Cultures -. We considered requests for extensions from those who wanted to participate and decided to allow more time for submissions. The deadline for submissions has therefore been extended to April 18.”.

“Telling and illustrating sustainable fashion aligned with its values is challenging but we believe in a creativity capable of countering the ambiguity and banality of greenwashing that is poisoning the entire fashion context – continued the CEO of Class Giusy Bettoni – . Respect for people and the planet, inclusion, innovation and research that define sustainable fashion can be represented in many ways, through visual communication but also with a campaign of awareness. We set no limits to creativity: candidates can send photographs, videos, illustrations, even cartoons or animation film. The red light will be exclusively for  self-promotional brand projects or for projects which are merely advertising.

The final selection of proposals will be sent to our international jury at the end of April. The winner of Imagining Sustainable Fashion 2023 will be announced on Thursday 18 May and will receive a prize of €3,000.000.

IMAGINING SUSTAINABLE FASHION 2023

General Information

The Imagining Sustainable Fashion Award (ISFA) is the international competition born out of the collaboration between Connecting Cultures, the foundation that guides the Out of Fashion platform, and C.L.A.S.S., the international eco-hub that since 2007 supports fashion and textile industry professionals to grow more responsibly and competitive.

Award submissions will be examined by a high-profile international jury composed of:

Anna Detheridge, Founder and President, Connecting Cultures
Giusy Bettoni, CEO and Founder, C.L.A.S.S.
Rita Airaghi, Steering Advisor, Gianfranco Ferré Research Center
Paola Arosio, Head of New Brands & Sustainability Projects, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana
Jeanine Ballone Managing Director, Fashion 4 Development
Evie Evangelou, Founder and President, Fashion 4 Development
Sara Kozlowski, Vice President of Program Strategies, Education, and Sustainability Initiatives, Council of Fashion Designers of America
Dio Kurazawa, Founding Partner, The Bear Scouts
Renata Molho, journalist, former editor-in-chief of L’Uomo Vogue and former editor-at-large of L’Uomo Vogue, Vogue Italia, Casa Vogue Stefania Ricci, Director, Museo Salvatore Ferragamo
Jovana Vukoje, Senior New Brands Specialist, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

Caterina Niccolai will offer support as a technical partner, and legal, copyright, and intellectual property expert.

The winning projects of past editions were Take a Walk on the Green Side by Emma Scalcon (2021 – Italy) and Fashion Affair by Vishal Tolambia (2022 – India), two very different works that highlighted how challenging sustainability issues are in the contemporary communication landscape.

C.L.A.S.S. and Connecting Cultures arepleased to confirm support for the award from brands committed to the forefront of sustainable textile research and production worldwide.
ROICATM by Asahi Kasei is one of two Main Sponsors of the award. ROICATM is the high-quality stretch fiber with an innovative range of smart features to meet every contemporary wardrobe need for sports, intimates, and fashion. ROICATM has always been committed to promoting responsible innovation in the textile industry.
The second Main Sponsor is BembergTM by Asahi Kasei, an extraordinary fiber obtained by smart-tech processing of pre-consumer cotton linter processed through a traceable and transparent closed-loop process.

Also supporting the project are SUPREME GREEN COTTON® by Varvaressos, an innovative, transparent, traceable and socially-responsible system that ensures sustainability from the cotton seed to the finished garment, and ECOSENSORTM by Asahi Kasei Advance, a next-generation fabric collection that promotes responsible innovation with advanced high-tech performance.

The Imagining Sustainable Fashion Award 2023 relies on young ambassadors who will promote the award through their communication channels:
Ren Collective, a nonprofit organization supporting brands, micro-businesses, professionals and students who want to integrate sustainable practices into their activities or education.

Iris Skrami, CEO and co-founder of Renoon, the platform that enables companies & consumers to engage around transparency and the impact of products from an app or directly within companies’ websites, one of the year’s rising startups, reaching more than 2 million people every month and aggregating hundreds of brands, 70+ of which have verified their claims.

Valentina Suarez, Co-Founder and director of the Latin American sustainable fashion movement Universo MOLA, a program of the Entre Soles y Lunas Foundation.
Vishal Tolambia, Founder of Humanity-Centred Designs, researcher in the field of sustainability in textiles and fashion, winner of the 2022 award with the project Fashion Affair.

Participants are invited to submit their projects to [email protected] by midnight on Tuesday April 18, 2023 (full details at www.connectingcultures.it).

The winner will be announced in on Thursday 18 May 2023 and will receive a cash prize of €3,000.00.