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

A group of Fashion and Society advocates from diverse disciplinary, locational, professional and personal perspectives came together at a Roundtable event in June 2022 to define how fashion can value society better. The resulting brief asks you to respond to industry challenges that, if answered, would support society 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, alongside the Fashion Values core partners 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 free online courses, for you to develop these change-making ideas and apply your learnings to real-world industry challenges.  

A Landscape Review has also been published, Centre for Sustainable Fashion conducted research to review a range of perspectives and activities relating to fashion and social sustainability, to map out the current state of fashion practice aimed at creating positive social change, and to understand the related challenges and possibilities. 

Use these tools to catalyse a new idea or refine an existing one in response to the Challenge Brief. 

The Brief 

We invite you to share your responses to the question:   “How can Fashion value Society?” 

This challenge calls for applicants to demonstrate that their idea will help to shift the fashion industry towards a more sustainable future: one that supports Society rather than exploits it.  

The Challenge brief is open category: we are seeking transformational ideas applied to the fields of design, media and/or technology. Applicants may propose an idea that focuses on one discipline or includes multiple disciplines.  

We welcome applications from both students and industry professionals.  

Download the 2022 Fashion Values Challenge Briefing Pack

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: Society, CSF’s open-source online course, into practical solutions. 

Showcasing & Pitching

Six finalists, three students and three industry professionals, will have their work showcased on the Fashion Values online platform, at a showcasing event, and in a report profiling innovation and signals of change.  

The finalists will be invited to present to a judging panel including representatives from core partners Centre for Sustainable Fashion (CSF), Kering, IBM and Vogue Business along with industry experts, who will select two winners.

Mentoring Programme

Two winners, one student and one industry professional, will benefit from a 6-month support programme that will give the opportunity to meet advisors from the Fashion Values network 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 60-minute one-to-one sessions with up to three advisors matched to you and your idea, for a total of six sessions within the duration of the programme. 

Who’s in our network? As well as our core partners Kering, IBM and Vogue Business, we’ll be selecting mentors from across the industry. 

The Judging Panel

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

Pauline Pigott, Kering

Karl Haller, IBM

Youwie Roes, Eyes on Talent

Sarah Needham, Textile Exchange

Divya Datt, UN Environment Program (UNEP) - India

Rachel Arthur, UN Environment Program (UNEP) - UK

Ai Aonuma, Kamakura Sustainability Institute - Japan

Brooke Roberts-Islam, Techstyler

Yayra Agbofah, The Revival Further judges are to be announced. 

Timeline 

Please note the deadline for applications is 10 am GMT (UST+00), Tuesday 28 February 2023. Any applications submitted after this time will not be accepted. 

• Submissions close – Tuesday 28 February 2023 

• Winners and finalists contacted – March 2023

• Winners and finalists announced – April 2023