Launched by WeDesign in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN, Future Fashion Now is a global, sustainable design competition that enables entrants to rethink how the fashion industry works.
Inspired by Make Fashion Circular and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the competition engages students, designers, fashion weeks and the global fashion industry to design a sustainable outfit or accessory to inspire the future of fashion.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation says the fashion industry is ‘inherently linear’ – resources are used to make clothing that ultimately ends up as waste.
The industry is producing twice the amount of clothes than it was in the early 2000s and at the same time we are wearing our clothes less and less, it says.
It says almost 75% of all clothes are landfilled or burned, with only 1% being recycled into new clothes.
Second largest industrial polluter
According to research published earlier this year from Finnish school, Aalto University, a system-wide transition is needed “immediately” to reduce environmental costs of the fashion industry.
Fundamental changes to the fashion business model, including an urgent transition away from ‘fast fashion’, are needed to improve the long-term sustainability of the fashion supply chain, it stated.
It found the fashion industry is the second largest industrial polluter after aviation, and accounts for up to 10% of global pollution.
In a circular economy for fashion, clothes, shoes, and accessories are used more, are made from safe and renewable materials, and are made to be made again.
Embrace circularity
Competition entries should ‘embrace circularity’ and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals whilst still maintaining a product that will look and feel good.
The item needs to reflect the times we live in, the fashion industry we need, and the future we want to see.
The competition will be judged by a panel of fashion and sustainability experts, including the Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular Lead – Francois Souchet.
The competition is open to all, with different categories and prizes and closes on the 30 September.
Find out more at wedesign.org.