Meet the GFF 2020 Considered Fashion Award Nominees
All works that celebrate sustainable, ethically aware and socially responsible products, media and marketing projects with a strong narrative that lowers environmental impact, and embodies and communicates sustainable and ethical practices. The presentation of your work must actively encourage and promote the benefits of ethical and environmental awareness. Meet the nominees!
Catherine Baldwin, University for the Creative Arts Epsom
GAL (Girls Against Leaks) is a not-for-profit, triple bottom line business selling stylish reusable period pants WHAT whilst giving back to help end period poverty. The function of the product is to absorb two tampons worth of period ow and protect the wearer from leaks, providing comfort through the use of breathable and non-toxic fabrications. Alongside this is the GAL PAL app where you can shop the products and track your cycle, whilst providing a learning and community space for the consumer. For those that menstruate and want a sustainable alternative to single-use sanitary products from a brand that gives back, empowers, and educates. The products are available direct to the consumer in the UK through the GAL website, or the GAL PAL app.
Elena Small, Nottingham Trent University
The following concept was developed in response to primary research findings with the disabled community, which revealed how a lack of representation and accommodation by the fashion industry has negatively impacted their emotional state and sense of self-esteem.
‘Estrella Clothing Ltd.’ is the UK’s first e-commerce adaptive occasion wear brand for women with a physical impairment, formed through a collaboration of the disabled community, designers and medical experts. Alongside a base range of products, each designed with subtle dexterity adaptations, the brand offers a complete bespoke alterations service unique to the adaptive clothing market.
The business concept embodies diversity with a socially responsible product as it addresses an identified unmet consumer need for style-focused adaptive occasionwear whistling acknowledging environmental awareness with considered elements such as digital sampling to reduce waste and create positive environmental impacts.
Emily Sorrell, University of the West of England
As someone with a chronic illness I have spent plenty of time sat bored out of my mind in waiting rooms. Instead of scrolling through our phone or overthinking the appointment, and assuming the worse, what if we used this time to find people like us? And used fashion as the tool to do this. Waiting Room is a platform and community exploring invisible disabilities. It can be used as both a source of information and educational stories, or to explore and visualise what it is like to have a chronic illness. Waiting Room was born out of a personal need to see invisible disabilities better represented within the fashion industry. To better understand my situation and educate others about what it is like being disabled without it being visible.
Ffion McCormick Edwards, Arts University Bournemouth
Inspired by a personal upbringing of waterskiing on the lakes of Wales, sparked a strong curiosity of the vast amount of wetsuits and life jackets stored at home. Motivated by the aesthetic and character of all the neglected garments influenced the strong, exciting design behind each product. As a conscious designer, it’s important to reuse and recycle pre existing resources into innovative and contemporary pieces. Pioneering the reworking of vibrant, surplus fabric is a conscious work ethos behind the collection, ensuring there is life after the lake.
Georgia Rose, University of South Wales
Since not all products work for everyone, Nu Beauty cosmetic’s mission is to attempt to solve people’s problems being the brand that offers specific therapies and cosmetic solutions to the disabled consumer. Customers seek variety, so part of nu beauty’s objective is to offer a product range in each niche to fit various clients’ needs. Nu Beauty aims to use recycled plastics for all products throughout the manufacturing process, collected from oceans within the UK. Nu Beauty will target customers that suffer visual impairment and limited dexterity.
Hermione Read, Edinburgh College of Art
From the concept to the realisation of my collection, sustainability, ethical practice and being socially responsi- ble is at the forefront of my process. My graduate collection began on a walk into Shepherds Bush, the area of London in which I was born. I was interested in finding out more about the area and social issues there, so I interviewed locals I met (from my befriended fabric shop owners, to market sellers, to Pecking’s Record Shop owner) about feelings of identity there, and how the area had changed.
A number of issues were raised about the fact that the historical market was going to be replaced with unaffordable luxury housing, and how the feeling of community and soul was being lost. On top of this, the intro- duction of the consumerist monolith of Westfield Shopping Centre, which towers over W12 had posed similar issues, another false regeneration scheme imposed by the government, promising locals job opportunities, but failing to fulfil them. The gentrification has seen many of the people who made the area the vibrant and buzzing place it is, lose their livelihoods, and my anger at this and want for social change sparked my collection concept: to re-inject fashion with a sense of soul, and to open a conversation surrounding social and political change, addressing human stories through the media of fashion.
Holly Thorp, University of Huddersfield
FRAYE was created as a response to the climate crisis. FRAYE uses mindful buying practises and a circular economy to slow down the fashion buying journey. Selling second-hand clothing, footwear and accessories to a target audience of women between the ages of 16-28. FRAYE stocks minimal, timeless and modern clothing to ll a gap in the U.K. second-hand fashion market.
The circular economy is FRAYE’s innovative take on shopping mindfully and ethically. FRAYE will not only sell clothing it sources itself but will encourage its consumers to recycle their clothing with us. This clothing is then fed back into the FRAYE system and sold on. For too long recycling clothing has been seen as confusing and time consuming, with a lack of transparency
Madeline McKenna, Coventry University
After investigating the waste disposal on site during my placement year working as a Junior colour, materials and nishes intern I decided to focus on developing a material from production waste that is non recyclable; Polyurethane Foam swarf dust from the automotive CNC process (Figure 1). I wanted to create a solution to non recyclable waste in the most sustainable way possible and working on how this could be applied to products in multiple industries, with initial focus on Fashion Technology products. I have produced six pairs of working modular headphones from automotive production waste.
Maisie Gale, Cardiff School of Art & Design
My Influences and research inspiration sources for my graduate collection is 100% recycled with the focus on the three R’s; RE-CYLE, RE-USE, RE-MAKE. My collection is made from waterproof materials used in the outer body of discarded tents from festivals and holiday campers. The designs reuse the functional features and attributes of the tent, for example ties, ropes, zips, eyelets D rings etc. These components are key details with the new garment’s features. Each garment is designed directly from the tents, manipulating the large pieces around the dress stand, creatively cutting the existing tent features to guide the design process, and achieve the garment shapes organically directly on the dress stand.
Poppy Wright, Ravensbourne University London
Wasted Fabrics is a non-profit organisation dedicated to reducing and education on tectile waste. Wasted Fabrics aims to ensure that no fabric gets left behind. Extending the life of unwanted fabrics by recycling or reselling to the creative community, Wasted’s vision is to be a helping hand to fashion design students and designers in an already competitive industry. We will strive to provide customers with the finest quality of fabrics for an affordable price, while reducing the frightening levels of textile waste produced by the fashion industry. This is us. We are Wasted Fabrics.
Sophie Parnaby, Manchester Metropolitan University
Research has found that heavily embellished garments are commonly worn for a few occasions before they are sent to landfill, where the bead and sequin components, often made from plastic, will persist in the environment for hundreds of years.
As part of my final collection, I developed an innovative manufacturing process to address this issue, providing a sustainable alternative to current, unsustainable embel- lishment production methods.
After discovering how 3D print technology is used in other manufacturing industries to reduce waste, I wanted to investigate how this could be beneficial to the embellishment industry. It is currently estimated that 33% of sequin film is wasted during the sequin punching process, resulting in a large quantity of plastic going to landfill before the sequins are even used to embellish garments. The additive nature of 3D printing means that embellishing fabrics using the technology is zero waste, as only the material needed is used.
Tara McReynolds, Birmingham City University
The first mass market social media platform that has a dedicated entity to support and encourage both businesses, influencers and consumers to create a greener focused fashion industry. “Instagreen” looks to make changes to the current Instagram platform to make it more ethically and sustainably focused in order to offer a fairer platform for smaller brands to have the opportunity to promote themselves to Instagram users. The platform will begin to shift its values from being driven by fast fashion, to offering customers the opportunity to shop greener with full transparency, honesty and ethos at the forefront of the platforms’ future goals.