Imagining Sustainable Fashion Award 2023

At the beginning of October 2022, Connecting Cultures and C.L.A.S.S. launched the third edition of the IMAGINING SUSTAINABLE FASHION AWARD for innovative models of communication in sustainable fashion.

On May 18th, discover the winner of this year’s award and join us for an inspiring conversation on a new generation of values with: 
• Anna Detheridge, Founder and President, Connecting Cultures
• Giusy Bettoni, CEO and Founder, C.L.A.S.S.
• Valentina Suarez, co-founder and general director of Universo Mola, ISFA ambassador

The competition invites stylists, photographers, designers, illustrators, artists and other creatives to rethink how to communicate the new generation of values of an ethical and sustainable fashion system. An open call and a high profile international jury to create an aesthetic that defines a new ethic.

Connecting Cultures and C.L.A.S.S. have joined forces to call on the international community of creatives to identify original solutions. 

They received proposals for traditional media such as editorial projects, fashion events, photography and advertising, and new digital and phygital projects, from social media campaigns to gaming and even immersive and virtual experiences. These proposals have all been evaluated by the amazing jury comprised of:
• Anna Detheridge, Founder and President, Connecting Cultures
• Giusy Bettoni, CEO and Founder, C.L.A.S.S.
• Rita Airaghi, Director, Gianfranco Ferré Foundation
• Paola Arosio, Head of New Brands & Sustainability Projects, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (The National Chamber for Italian Fashion)
• Jeanine Ballone, Managing Director, Fashion 4 Development
• Evie Evangelou, Founder and President, Fashion 4 Development
• Sara Kozlowski, Director of Education and Sustainable Strategies, Council of Fashion Designers of America
• Dio Kurazawa, Founding Partner, The Bear Scouts
• Renata Molho, Journalist, former Editor-in-Chief of L’Uomo Vogue and Editor-at-Large of L’Uomo Vogue, Vogue Italia, Casa Vogue
• Lucy Orta, Chair, Art & the Environment, University of the Arts London
• Stefania Ricci, Director, Museo Salvatore Ferragamo
• Jovana Vukoje, Senior New Brands Specialist, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.
Caterina Niccolai offered support as a technical partner, and legal, copyright, and intellectual property expert.

The main sponsors of the competition are:

• ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei, the high-quality stretch fiber with an innovative range of smart features to meet every contemporary wardrobe need for sports, intimates, and fashion. ROICA™ has always been committed to promoting responsible innovation in the textile industry. 
• Bemberg™ by Asahi Kasei, an extraordinary fiber obtained by smart-tech processing of pre-consumer cotton linter processed through a traceable and transparent closed-loop process. 

Also supporting the project are SUPREME GREEN COTTON® by Varvaressos, an innovative, transparent, traceable and socially-responsible system that ensures sustainability from the cotton seed to the finished garment, and ECOSENSOR™  by Asahi Kasei Advance, a next-generation fabric collection that promotes responsible innovation with advanced high-tech performance. 

The Imagining Sustainable Fashion Award 2023 relies on young ambassadors who will promote the award through their communication channels:

• Ren Collective, a nonprofit organization supporting brands, micro-businesses, professionals and students who want to integrate sustainable practices into their activities or education. 
• Iris Skrami, CEO and co-founder of Renoon, the platform that enables companies & consumers to engage around transparency and the impact of products from an app or directly within companies’ websites, one of the year’s rising startups, reaching more than 2 million people every month and aggregating hundreds of brands, 70+ of which have verified their claims. 
• Valentina Suarez, Co-Founder and director of the Latin American sustainable fashion movement Universo MOLA, a program of the Entre Soles y Lunas Foundation.
• Vishal Tolambia, Founder of Humanity-Centred Designs, researcher in the field of sustainability in textiles and fashion, winner of the 2022 award with the project Fashion Affair. 

The winner will receive a cash prize of €3,000.