THE SUBMISSIONS TO THE 2021 FASHION VALUES CHALLENGE ARE NOW CLOSED

Do you have an idea that will shake up the fashion industry?  

A group of Fashion and Nature advocates from diverse disciplinary, locational, professional and personal perspectives came together at a Roundtable event in January 2021 to define what Nature needs from fashion. The resulting brief asks you to respond to industry challenges that, if answered, would restore nature through fashion.  

Based on the Roundtable discussions, the Challenge brief is co-developed by brands, academics, NGOs, media and tech advocates, and representatives from a cross-section of the fashion industry: Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF), Kering, IBM, Vogue Business. Answer their call for transformational ideas across fashion design, media and technology.  

The Fashion Values programme provides tools and resources (including Voices, Methods and an online course) for you to develop these change-making ideas and apply your learnings to real-world industry challenges. Use these tools to catalyse a new idea or refine an existing one in response to the Challenge. 

Challenge Benefits 

The Fashion Values Challenge is an annual programme to support innovative, transformational ideas from all over the world. Benefits to Challenge applicants include:  

• The opportunity to explore fashion and sustainability in practice, responding to an industry brief co-developed by brands, academics, NGOs, media and tech advocates, and representatives from a cross-section of the fashion industry.  

• The opportunity to apply learnings from Fashion Values: Nature, CSF’s open-source online course, into practical solutions. 

Showcasing & Pitching 

Ten finalists will have their work showcased on the Fashion Values online platform, and in a report profiling innovation and signals of change, co-developed by CSF and Vogue Business.  

The finalists will be invited to present at the 2022 Fashion Values Roundtable, an event bringing together representatives from world-leading brands, academics, NGOs, media and tech advocates, and core partners Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF), Kering, IBM and Vogue Business.  

Advisory Programme 

Two winners will benefit of a 6-month support programme that will give the opportunity to meet advisors from the Fashion Values core partners and work with them to further develop your idea, including connecting applicants to potential stakeholders that could support the idea development.  

Each winner will have two 90-minute one-to-one sessions with each advisor, for a total of six sessions within the duration of the programme. 

Partner Benefits 

If applicable to their concept, finalists with a technology focus will be granted access to the IBM Partner programme, enabling them to integrate IBM technologies and bring their concept to life with services including Data, AI, Cloud, Blockchain, IoT and many others.   

Challenge winners will also be awarded a year’s Vogue Business membership, giving them access to sustainability-focused reporting, insights and analysis on the global shifts impacting fashion, beauty and luxury businesses.   

The Judging Panel 

• Helen Crowley, Kering 

• Sara Maino, Vogue Italia 

• Karl Haller, IBM 

• Matthew Drinkwater, Fashion Innovation Agency, London College of Fashion 

• Dilys Williams, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

• Nina Stevenson, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

• Ai Aonuma, Founder of the Kamakura Sustainability Institute 

• Emanuela Gregorio, Fashionomics Africa Economist

• Dian-Jen Lin, Founder of the Post Carbon lab

• Archana Datta, Expert, SCP and Circular Economy Asian Institute of Technology

Timeline 

THE SUBMISSIONS TO THE 2021 FASHION VALUES CHALLENGE ARE NOW CLOSED

Please note the deadline for applications is 10am BST (UST+00), Monday 6 September 2021. Any applications submitted after this date will not be accepted.