Fashion District names shortlist for Design Futures 2022

The Fashion District has named nine emerging designers on the shortlist for its Design Futures 2022 - Innovation Challenge Prize to find a new sustainable solution that will develop design for circularity and revolutionise the fashion industry.

The nine sustainably driven fashion designers are using “innovative approaches to circularity” to transform the traditional linear design process with new solutions to prevent premature disposal and extend the usage of products.

The finalists will compete to win a cash prize of 15,000 pounds, donated by material science company, Pangaia. The winner will also receive a development workshop with Pangaia and 10 consultancy hours with the company, as well as a new sewing machine from Anglo American Sewing Machines.

In addition, they will receive a one-year desk membership at the Trampery Fish Island Village, a Business of Fashion professional, and 12-month business membership with Common Objective, which will provide global connections, premium intelligence and training courses in sustainable fashion and manufacturing.

Design Futures 2022 announces nine emerging designers on the shortlist

Andrew Bell is a London-based designer whose design practice aims to change the future of tailoring by integrating traditional tailoring techniques with sonic welding and taping technologies in a bid to transform the tailoring process. The result is a lightweight garment that is mono-material in its fabrication, allowing it to be easily reprocessed at the end-of-life stage.

Daniel Crabtree offers handcrafted menswear staples, drawn and cut freehand, that are “progressive and built to endure,” to reimagine British tailoring. He also utilises repurposed fabrics and materials to eliminate waste from development and production processes.

FibreLab is looking to empower fashion businesses to implement circular practices throughout their supply chain by shredding unwanted textiles and developing innovative ways to use them. Its approach was designed with circularity in mind and explores key sustainability themes including hyper-local sourcing, modularity, and design for disassembly.

Nicci James is a fashion knitwear graduate from the Royal College of Art who works with a design method that harnesses wool’s durability by using knitted structures to engineer strength into the garment. Her innovation uses the capabilities of wool without added interfacings, stabilisers, or linings, and presents a completely mono-material example of tailoring that is easier to reprocess.

Osmose Studio is an interdisciplinary design studio focused on regenerative circularity and sustainability in fashion, accessories, and homeware. Its innovation offers a new restorative and symbiotic clothing production model, where renewable fibres are combined with organic dyes, assisting the remediation of UK polluted land sites.

Savvas Alexander is a designer and maker from Yorkshire whose design practice embodies the creation of meaningful clothing by enabling made-to-order systems that tackle overproduction and overconsumption. His innovation reduces garment processes and speeds up manufacture by sealing garment edges and eliminating excess finishes and fastenings.

Skins of Earth is a plant-based luxury handbag brand on a mission to drive sustainable change by crafting its pieces entirely from natural rubber biomaterials grown as a live form using a low-energy incubation system, ensuring that all designs can be biodegradable after their life cycle.

Weffan x Liquid Editions is a collaboration between 3D woven textile company Weffan and designer brand Liquid Editions. Together they have created a 3D woven, low-waste outfit that combines two manufacturing steps into one, merging the weaving of the fabric with the creation of the garment. This method considers the sustainability of everything in the production process and proposes a new way to decrease garment manufacture.

Y.A.N.G. (You Are the Next Generation), hailing from Chile, has spent the last six years working as a designer and upcycler to create a waste-minimising garment reconstruction method that will allow retailers to efficiently reconstruct or redesign their excess stock. This approach will allow retailers to cut out waste, extend the life of their products, and introduce garment remaking techniques.

Each of the shortlisted finalists will pitch to the judges at an industry and investor supper in November 2022. The finalists will receive “constructive feedback from high-level industry experts,” who will act as ‘Critical Friends,’ in the areas of fashion design, business strategy, IP, production and circularity.

Helen Lax, director at Fashion District, said in a statement: “We are delighted to announce our shortlist of designers who have proposed nine innovations that could advance the field of circular design. This is our chance to work together, both within the industry and across other sectors, to bring circular design into public consciousness in a bid to tackle environmental issues and reshape the fashion industry.”