China may be better known for its mass production than haute couture. But it’s also home to a growing number of sustainable fashion designers. Enter the Ecochic Design Award, the nation’s first mainstream ecofashion design competition. Aimed at stimulating textile-waste-reducing designs, 10 finalists compete for the top prize: the chance to design a sustainable collection using innovatively recycled textiles for Esprit. In 2012, the prize went to Gong Jia Qi, a student at the Raffles Design Institute in Shanghai. Gong reconstructed five garments using unsold stock from Taobao, one of China’s leading online retailers.
In the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Fashion Week and Ministry of Economic Affairs first supported young ecofashion designers in 2010, when the The Green Fashion Competition was launched. The Green Fashion Competition serves as a talent show challenging fashion designers to balance the social, ecological and economical impacts of their ideas. The award winners receive a sum of money that they can use to make new collections, as well as an individual coaching programme stimulating their corporate social responsibility and marketing skills. In addition, the Amsterdam Fashion Week allows the first prize winner to show a new collection as part of its catwalk programme. Dutch topmodel Lonneke Engel being ambassador of the competition, the winners are likely to receive plenty of media attention.
Between 2010 and 2012, The Green Fashion Competition, which was open to international designers and labels, awarded prizes to sustainable design talents such as Elsien Gringhuis, Carrie Parry and Studio Jux. According to Lonneke Engel, the competition has put the spotlights on the Netherlands as a forerunner in eco & fair fashion. What’s more, because the prize winners receive plenty of information and support, they are more likely to develop a profitable as well as people & planet-friendly business. And it remains to be seen if the Ecochic Design Award can also achieve that.