Arts Thread

Update! Congratulations to Kate Morris, graduate Fashion Knitwear Design MA from Nottingham Trent University, winner of the EcoChic Design Award 2017! Our friends at Redress are preparing for the EcoChic Design Award 2017 Grand Final on Thursday September 07, live streamed! – we take a look at the work of the 10 designers via the brand-new photoshoot entitled Fresh Fight! Meet the 10 Finalists in the EcoChic Design Award 2017!! See the semi-finalists in the EcoChic Design Award 2017 & see a selection on ARTS THREAD. VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE SEMI-FINALIST Have your say in which of our 24 EcoChic Design Award semi-finalists will take home the title of EcoChic Design Award 2017 People’s Choice! Simply select your favourite sustainable fashion design talent based on their sketches and written statements. The most popular designer will be announced on 25 May along with our 10 EcoChic Design Award 2017 finalists. VOTE NOW The EcoChic Design Award is a sustainable fashion design competition inspiring emerging fashion designers and students to create high-appeal clothing with minimal textile waste. ARTS THREAD is proud to be a supporting partner to this initiative. Designers are educated with the theory and techniques to enable them to create high appeal clothing via the sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction, and through the sourcing of textile waste for their collections. The competition puts emerging sustainable design talent in the spotlight, creating a platform for the next generation of designers to cut waste out of fashion. Entry Requirements Website: The EcoChic Design Award Location: living in the USA or any Asian or European country at the time of the application (valid ID/passport/visa/resident permit). Experience/age: fashion designer with less than three years’ professional fashion design experience or a fashion design student studying in any year at an educational institute in the USA or any Asian or European country at the time of the application. Entry: Free Deadline: April 04 2017 FIRST PRIZE - THE ECOCHIC DESIGN AWARD 2017 WITH B Y T You will join a team of fashion game-changers to assist in creating an up-cycled capsule collection for B Y T, an exciting new fashion brand, which will retail on B Y T’s future e-commerce platform and at Lane Crawford, Asia’s leading iconic luxury department store. Following your victory, you will work with B Y T’s design team in the dynamic city of Hong Kong for three months, during which you will help to source fabric waste from Asia, work on the designs, travel within Asia to assist with production, present to buyers, support the marketing efforts and in addition learn all aspects of launching a brand, with mentorship from top experts in fashion, business and sustainability. You’ll also be filmed in action for an exciting documentary about the process. SECOND PRIZE - THE ECOCHIC DESIGN AWARD 2017 MENTORSHIP WITH ORSOLA DE CASTRO You will receive a tailored mentorship with distinguished sustainable fashion designer and competition judge, Orsola de Castro. Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in sustainable fashion, Orsola has nurtured many of the pioneering names in sustainable fashion from their early designs through to their established brands. This mentorship opportunity will give you expert and targeted support, which will be provided to you wherever you are in the world through video calls and by email over a six-month period. This will propel your career in sustainable fashion design forwards and prepare you, your visions and your collections for the competitive market of attracting fashion buyers and media – and ultimately securing success. PLUS - A total of ten finalists from across the regions will be selected to come to Hong Kong in early September 2017 to showcase their minimal waste collections at HKTDC Hong Kong’s Fashion Week CENTRESTAGE where career-changing prizes will be awarded. WHAT IS THE COMPETITION DESIGN BRIEF? You are challenged to design a sustainable womenswear collection that will redress the way contemporary, fashion-loving women dress. Your designs must inspire your muse to step out into the world as a trailblazer in her own right who confidently wears her conscious values stylishly on her sleeve. YOU ARE DESIGNING FOR: A fashion-informed, dynamic, intelligent and sophisticated woman with a modern appreciation of global style who wants to look as good at a party as she does moving through her inspired and busy day She enjoys considered and conscious luxury, where focus is given to quality, tailoring and elevated craftsmanship She is conscientious about wastefulness in modern living and wishes to be dressed in ways that reflect her style as much as her sentiments YOUR DESIGNS MUST BE CREATED: Using one or more of the sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction Using textile waste Showing opportunities for reproducibility and scalability IF YOU WANT TO REDRESS WOMEN IN STYLE AND SUSTAINABILITY, YOU MUST: Design to win. Create three ready-to-wear outfit sketches (not complete outfits) for your Open Application using textile waste. If you become one of the ten finalists, you must make these three ready-to-wear sketches into complete outfits, along with two additional complete ready-to-wear outfits and one couture outfit for the grand final fashion show. Impress the judges. For the Open Application and Semi-Final judging, your designs will be scored in three categories of equal weighting - creativity and originality, sustainability, marketability - based on the creative design brief. For the Grand Final judging, the additional category of workmanship will be added when the judges can see your collection. Full details from Application Details