Forget fast fashion–New Zealand’s design scene is weaving a revolution based on waste, not trends. Mindful Fashion, the driving force behind this revolution, is empowering designers to be beacons of change with the inaugural Mindful Fashion Circular Design Awards.
The awards are all about rethinking clothes and creating couture from things we usually throw away. By keeping everyday trash items from landfills, from old jeans to onion skins, designers create clothes that are good for the planet and look fantastic. The Mindful Fashion Circular Design Awards isn’t just a competition, it’s a movement.
“We’re delighted with the standard of entries in our first year of the awards, designers really rose to the challenge. Designing for the circular economy is imperative if the fashion industry wants to meet a 1.5 degree pathway,” Jacinta FitzGerald, Mindful Fashion New Zealand Chief Executive said in a press release. “We are excited to be providing a platform for innovation away from current wasteful and polluting systems, and empowering designers to channel their creativity to be at the leading edge of change.”
These ten finalists for the Mindful Fashion Circular Design Awards aren’t just pushing boundaries, they’re reimagining the very fabric of fashion. Judges like Dan Ahwa, Viva’s Creative Director, are calling this “the strongest year ever” for sustainable design—and we’re not surprised. The inaugural finalists are:
- Nethasha Abeysinghe
- Josh Bognar
- Katherine Chow
- William Keane Jung-Ying Fitzgerald
- Whitney Henton
- Philippa Hoogsteden
- Izzy Levian
- Karlie Morrow
- Olivia Schaw
- Donna Stoble
With a $40,000 prize pool and the chance to showcase their work at the glittering Gala Dinner, the stakes are high – but the potential impact is even higher.
Want to be part of the future of fashion? Join the celebration. Grab your tickets to the Mindful Fashion Circular Design Awards gala dinner and witness the birth of a sustainable style supernova. An exhibition of finalists’ work will be showcased at the gala dinner and tickets are open to members of the public and available to purchase here.
It’s time to ditch the landfill and embrace the beauty of what was once waste. Let’s weave a fashion future we can all be proud of, thread by thread, onion skin by onion skin.
