Meet the jury members of the Fashion Makes Sense Award

We proudly introduce you to the members of the jury for the 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award!

Alex McIntosh - Creative Director, CREATE SUSTAIN

Alex has extensive experience in the research, development and delivery of successful business strategies and creative projects in the fashion sector. He is a leader in the field of fashion and sustainability with an extensive network of contacts across retail, design, production and education. Previously, Course Director of MA Fashion Futures at London College of Fashion, he founded Create Sustain, a consultancy and creative collective bringing together like-minded strategists and designers to respond to the challenges retailers and brands face in embedding sustainability in both their operations and their communications. They work on one off campaigns and long-term strategic projects creating content that can shape both internal and external business cultures.

Annouk Post - Creative Coach of Sustainable (Fashion) Pioneers

Annouk Post has been making sustainable fashion programs for more than 14 years. Annouk envisions a future in which happiness and sustainable development are inseparable. Conscious living means constantly reinventing the best version of you and the best version of our planet. That is why she coaches pioneers on their own sustainable journey. After graduating from Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) and Institute for the Arts in Arnhem (ArtEZ) she co-founded the first good fashion store in the Netherlands (2004). Annouk created programmes for Fashion for Good, Berlin Fashion Week, Elle Decoration and published her own book ‘Ontdekkingsreis naar een duurzame wereld’ in 2016. Annouk is currently part of the Ware Westen Team.  

Belvis Soler - Founder & Editor-in-chief Luxiders Magazine, a modern media company which aspires to expand the responsable consumption worldwide.
She is also the Co-Founder of GASS - Global Association for Sustainable Societies, an NGO focused on Inclusive Education, Employment and Events.

Art Director, Stylist and Storyteller, Belvis Soler is a change-maker who wants to spread the sustainable culture worldwide. 

Holly Syrett - Senior Sustainability Manager Global Fashion Agenda

Holly Syrett joined Global Fashion Agenda as Senior Sustainability Manager in May 2020 to mobilise and guide the fashion industry to take bold action on sustainability. In her role, she is responsible for programmes and publications such as the CEO Agenda, Fashion on Climate and the Circular Fashion Partnership. 

Syrett brings 10 years of experience working on sustainability and transparency programmes in the fashion industry for both public and professional audiences. Syrett is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper alumnus, Climate Reality Leader and she holds a BA in Fashion and Branding from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute. As part of the Global Shapers’ Community, she co-founded the Shaping Fashion movement that is now active in 50+ cities worldwide.

Luciana Duarte - PhD researcher in Production Engineering (Brazil) and in Development Studies (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Founder of Ethical Fashion Brazil.

Max Gilgenmann - CEO and Founder studio MM04, Content Director at Neonyt

Max Gilgenmann is a senior consultant and spokesman addressing the subject of marketing sustainability in globalised textile chains through his broad transcultural network.

“Sustainability is my guilty pleasure“

Sara Sozzani Maino - Deputy director of Vogue Italia and Head of Vogue Talents, International Brand Ambassador Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and Goodwill Ambassador Fashion for Development.

She has been at the Italian fashion magazine Vogue for over two decades and has a penchant for scouting young design talent.

Maino's fashion history began in 1991 at the newly opened 10 Corso Como in Milan. In 1994, she became an intern at Vogue Italia. Today, as deputy director of Vogue Italia and head of Vogue Talents, Sara continues to oversee this important international project created with Franca Sozzani in 2009. Vogue Talents is both an editorial and online project; a network that scouts and supports the best emerging creative talents in womenswear, menswear, accessories as well as fashion photography across the world. 

”Supporting the new generation of creative talents means believing in the future. We need to be aware and think that the future from now on must be responsible. This is my belief. This is my aim.”

The winners of the Fashion Makes Sense Award will be announced during the digital edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival on Saturday the 27th of February. The live announcement will be hosted by Anne-Ro Klevant Groen, Marketing and Communications Director at Fashion for Good and Editor-at-Large Sustainability at Vogue Netherlands.

Did you already vote for your favorite Finalist for the Audience Award?

The 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award is supported by the Provence of Limburg, Municipality of Maastricht, Meester Koetsier Foundation and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Fashion Makes Sense Award: In conversation with...

Within the context of the 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award, FASHIONCLASH teamed up with Chanel Trapman of MUMSTER and will host an online live conversation, centered around the topic of sustainability in fashion; not just focusing on environmental aspects but also including wellbeing, emotions, inclusion and identity.

Date: Wednesday 27th of January 2021
Time: 17.00 – 18.00 (GMT +1)
Where: FASHIONCLASH YouTube Channel

The registration of this conversation will also be broadcasted during the digital edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival on the Friday 26th of February , 21.00 (+1 GMT)

Conversation members:  Chanel Trapman (MUMSTER), Branko Popovic (FASHIONCLASH), Daniëlle Bruggeman (Professor of Fashion, ArtEZ University of the Arts), Marian Duff (OSCAM), Roosmarie Ruigrok (Clean&Unique, Reflow Project, Green Deal Circulaire Denim) and award-winning designer Tom van der Borght.

The conversation is due to COVID-19 restrictions not physically accessible but can be watched directly via the YouTube channel of FASHIONCLASH. The registration of this conversation will also be broadcasted during the digital edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival on the Friday 26th of February , 21.00 (+1 GMT)

About the conversation members

Chanel Trapman
Founder of MUMSTER – the conscious fashion movement, a conscious campaign agency and platform, founded in 2016 as a reaction to the failing system of the fashion industry. As a young 22 years-old mother of her then 3-years-old son Mick, she was determined to set the right example for the next generation. MUMSTER is always on the move to find fair and sustainable fashion initiatives to collaborate and raise awareness about the fact we need to change the current fashion system together, and to inspire everyone to take action and make a positive impact in the fashion industry in their own way. MUMSTER connects people, from consumers to government, through their creative conscious campaigns. MUMSTER believes it is important to not only empower the like-minded initiatives that are working toward the fair and sustainable fashion system; for MUMSTER, it is even more essential that their conscious campaigns contribute to the fashion industry as a whole.

Photo: Laura van der Spek

Branko Popovic
One of the co-founders/directors of FASHIONCLASH Foundation. He was born in former Yugoslavia (Croatia) but due to war he and his family immigrated to The Netherlands. Eventually, Branko settled in Maastricht, where he also completed the Fashion Design course at Maastricht Academy of Arts. On behalf of FASHIONCLASH, he is one of the referents of the open value driven network Culture.Fashion and he is often invited as a speaker, jury member (e.g. Dutch Design Awards) and guest lecturer in various contexts.

Next to his work for FASHIONCLASH, Branko has his own multidisciplinary studio for a period of ten years with focus on fashion & costume design and has he been involved in various performing arts projects. He reports about art and culture for his personal blog and occasionally for other online magazines. Between 2017 and 2020 he was a member of the advisory committee at Creative Industries Fund NL.

Photo: Sem Shayne

Daniëlle Bruggeman
A cultural theorist, specialized in fashion and identity. In January 2017, she was appointed as Professor of Fashion at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands. She teaches at both the MA Fashion Strategy and the MA Fashion Design at ArtEZ, and leads the Centre of Expertise Future Makers in collaboration with dr. Jeroen van den Eijnde. Daniëlle Bruggeman holds a PhD in Cultural Studies, which was part of the first large-scale interdisciplinary research project on fashion in the Netherlands, ‘Dutch Fashion Identity in a Globalised World’ (2010-2014) at Radboud University in Nijmegen, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. She has been a visiting scholar at Parsons, the New School for Design (NYC), and at London College of Fashion. She has published on topics like the fluid, performative and embodied dimensions of identity, (Dutch) fashion photography, and fashion as a new materialist aesthetics. Her current research interests include exploring more engaged approaches, vocabularies and strategies, using fashion as a tool for systemic change and societal transformation. On April 25, 2018, Daniëlle Bruggeman gave her inaugural lecture and presented the accompanying publication Dissolving the Ego of Fashion: Engaging with Human Matters.

Photo: Bert Beelen

Marian Duff
Founder and director of OSCAM and MAFB. OSCAM is the museological platform for art, fashion, design, craftsmanship and development in Amsterdam and aims to stimulate and increase the interest in the arts, particularly for the residents of Amsterdam and especially the Bijlmer area. They show high-quality presentations of art, fashion, design, craftsmanship and development, through educational and participatory programs. By involving known and unknown creative talents in their exhibitions and programs, OSCAM inspires the youth and fulfils the need of a connection platform with other social art institutes in Amsterdam.

Roosmarie Ruigrok
While working as a buyer, Roosmarie Ruigrok discovered her passion in fair supply chains. After she sold her company Promax Corporate Fashion, Roosmarie worked as CSR consultant at Amnesty International, Elsewear Foundation, known by “Green is the new Black” and Fair Wear Foundation. In 2007, she founded the ethical fashion platform Clean & Unique. Roosmarie also worked for Fairtrade as Cotton Manager and introduced Fashion Revolution in the Netherlands. Currently she works for the municipality of Amsterdam on the Reflowproject and the Green Deal Circulaire Denim.

Photo: Ayaan Hanewald

Tom van der Borght
A multidisciplinary artist with a focus on both fashion, artistic research and performance. Tom van der Borght studied at the Toneelacademie Maastricht after he first graduated from Stedelijke Academie Voor Schone Kunsten Sint Niklaas (SASK) in 2012 and describes himself as a ‘d.i.y. person’ -the current situation mainly triggers him to learn new things in order to become ultra-self-sufficient as a designer and an artist. He is not in search of traditional beauty or honey-sweet cutesiness. Tom creates bold combinations of bright colors, psychedelic graphics and textures made for a true bombardment of the senses, while always on the look-out for the unconventional and questioning mainstream social structures. What does society consider normal and why?

Tom participated in FASHIONCLASH Festival in 2013,2014 and 2019 and in 2019 he was the winner of the FASHIONCLASH Festival Award. In 2020, he won the Grand Prix & Public Prize during the 35th edition of the prestigious Festival de Mode de Hyères.

The 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award is supported by the Provence of Limburg, Municipality of Maastricht, Meester Koetsier Foundation and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Vote for your favorite Finalist!

It’s time to vote! Who is your favorite Finalist of the 4th Fashion Makes Sense Award and should win the Audience Award?

The winner will be announced on Saturday the 27th of February during the digital edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival, 26-28 February.

Online voting is possible until 27th of February, the count will be stopped during the livestream presentation.

FASHIONCLASH will hand out 2 Awards as part of the Fashion Makes Sense Award:
• An Audience Award of €1000, -
• A Jury Award of €2500, -

The prize money is intended for the further development of a sustainable work (e.g. collection, research etc.)

VOTING CLOSED

1. Andrea Grossi

2. Saskia Lenaerts

3. MARKO FEHER

4. Mathilde Rougier

5. Arí van Twillert

6. MATTHEW NEEDHAM

7. ESRA COPUR

8. Kevin Pleiter

9. SANKIM

Watch the video below for a personal explanation and vision of every Finalist about their work!

The Fashion Makes Sense Award is an annual returning motivation prize for young designers. This award aims to develop talent and support sustainable designers on the one hand and raise awareness of sustainability related issues with a larger audience on the other.

The 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award is supported by the Provence of Limburg, Municipality of Maastricht, Meester Koetsier Foundation and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Meet the Finalists of the Fashion Makes Sense Award 2020

Update: Due to new measurements to control the COVID-19 virus, announced by the Dutch Government on the 13th of October, FASHIONCLASH Festival 2020 and thus the Fashion Makes Sense Award will be postponed until further notice. Within the capacity of our team we are currently reviewing the initial program of FASHIONCLASH Festival 2020 and investigating the possibilities to organize a digital event in early 2021.

We are very pleased to introduce you to the Finalists for the 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award 2020! The 9 finalists will present their work during the Fashion Makes Sense Award Show,on Friday the 27th of November. In addition, 1 outfit of each Finalist will be exhibited as part of FASHIONCLASH Festival 2020 (27-29 November).

FASHIONCLASH will hand out 2 Awards during the Fashion Makes Sense Award Show:
• An audience Award of €1000, -
• A jury Award of €2500, -

The prize money is intended for the development of a sustainable work (e.g. collection, research etc.)

Would like to vote for your favorite Finalist of the Fashion Makes Sense Award? Sign up to receive a reminder as soon as the online voting for the audience Award starts!

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Reminder: Start voting for Fashion Makes Sense Award 2020

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Andrea Grossi
Reggio Emilia, Italy

Andrea Grossi graduated in 2019 of Polimoda in Florence, Italy. His eponymous menswear label was born in 2020.

The collection ‘Welcome to DeusLand’ evokes the future of society and human beings, tackling issues of social sustainability and shedding light on 21st-century problems. In what direction is mankind going? By fusing technology and craftsmanship, with Tuscan and Umbrian leather goods, Andrea creates modern and innovative manipulation through the techniques of laser cutting, embossing and bonding with an added alternative denim fibre of low environmental impact.

Andrea believes that the future for sustainable fashion is about guidance and educating the consumer and to make them understand the importance to know what they are buying. “The new luxury will be about knowledge and it’s is our task (being a designer red.) to move the trend and the markets.”

Instagram

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Saskia Lenaerts
London, United Kingdom

Saskia Lenaerts is a trans-national designer who aims to disarm prejudice with her work. It pushes for a more unified and borderless world, founded on celebrating both cultural differences and commonalities. Saskia holds a MA in fashion menswear from Central Saint Martins, London.

‘Dis-Armed’ is made up of a combination of up-cycled military garments and dead stock fabrics. This forces an alternative approach to the design and making process: the destruction, the unravelling, the cutting open, the dis-charging, the slashing and the extending/inverting of volume are key to the design aesthetics. Saskia invested in researching various relevant topics including borders, belonging, displacement, home, cosmopolitanism, migration, etc., and their meanings to herself at this point in time.

Fuelled by the research, she conducted for this collection and her personal experiences and set out to demilitarise military garments as an allegory for all the borders, institutions and people she wishes to see demilitarised. “My work aims to push for a socio and politically sustainable environment. It is an amalgamation of durable and lasting concepts, materials and production methods. The process of concept development is intended to sustain all human beings and the planet they inhabit, for everyone to feel safe and accepted.”

Instagram
Website

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MARKO FEHER
Gradišla, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Marko Potkozarac Feher is a Bosnian fashion designer who lives and works torn between Bosnia & Herzegovina and London. He is an ethical designer who does not use any materials of animal origin when creating his collections. Marko was the first Bosnian designer who got both accepted at Central Saint Martins and was published in British Vogue.

“My grandfather decided to donate his suits to the ‘Red Cross’ – because, as he said, he didn’t need them anymore. The ‘Red Cross’ said they already had too many clothes and that it would be better to give all those suits to someone in need, privately. My grandfather decided to throw them away, so I decided to take all the suits - which were of a very high quality. I decided to redesign them and make new things out of them, to have my own grandpa’s heritage and to make new memories.” In addition to reusing the suits, Marko recycled shirts, ties, badges, belts and figurines. But most of all, he recycled memories.

Instagram
Website

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Mathilde Rougier
Paris, France

Mathilde Rougier is a multi-disciplinary fashion designer, working across the fields of modular textiles, augmented reality, 3D design and upcycled plastics. She focuses on developing circular production and design systems for clothing and adornment. Her practice centers on the body within a sustainable and digital context. She explores themes of digital deterioration, glitch, file corruption and modular image generation.

The ‘MODULAR AUGMENTED CAPSULE’ proposes a circular approach to sustainability, as all the materials used come from waste. The main textile functions like Lego; the pieces are slotted together, can be taken apart and put back together in a different form. The design process is constantly ongoing without creating waste. Same goes for the virtual parts of the garment; they can be updated and evolved without creating waste. The other techniques (second-hand cotton hotel sheeting, which was naturally dyed and the re-melted plastic packaging) use upcycling and can be upcycled themselves, as long as material unity is conserved.

Instagram
Website

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Arí van Twillert
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Arí van Twillert combines her passions for engineering and fashion to create stunning lingerie and jewelry. Her work always involves science and with her garments she wants to tell stories about societal issues. She is obsessed with fit and uses 21st century technologies combined with couture craft sewing techniques to make lasting garments that people will cherish.

‘Vocal Embodiment’ is a collaboration between Arí van Twillert and singer ANNNA. Having a passion for music, Arí wanted to visualize a singer’s voice onto a garment so the singer could wear her own voice. Looking for a voice that also had something to say she came across ANNNA who sings about topics like fast fashion and climate change. Arí will be using ANNNA’s voice as input to come up with graphic visualizations that she will transform into garments by using 3D printing, laser cutting, embroidery, silk screen printing etc. These technologies will be combined to perform material research which will result in innovative ways to embody the sound visualizations into custom made garments for ANNNA and her dancers. The innovative performance garments that implement the sustainably sourced elements will allow ANNNA to wear her own voice and amplify the desired impact across a wide audience with her message.

Instagram
Website

Photo: Josefien Hoekstra
Make-up: Ashley Groenewald
Model: Tinotenda Mushore

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MATTHEW NEEDHAM
London, United Kingdom

MATTHEW NEEDHAM is a designer and upcyclist based in London. As a graduate of MA Fashion at Central Saint Martins, his work reflects fashion’s yearning for radical ideas, as he champions the use of unorthodox materials that are both innovative and educational. Up-cycling fly-tipped waste and using dead-stock from luxury fashion houses are inherent within his process and focus on storytelling, having previously honed his skills of textile innovation and construction at Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

‘ØYEBLIKK’ or ‘In the Blink of an Eye’ began with a self-reflection of a time within Matthew’s own life. The aim was to embody that time within garments, allowing it to live eternally. By explaining the connection of the found materials to the origin story, each piece becomes an artefact and the value of that artefact transcends a retail price point. My intention is to strengthen the relationship we have with the clothing we wear and to set a viable example of storytelling and upcycling as intrinsic parallels for future design. Designing for positive change is the zeitgeist.

Instagram
Website

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ESRA COPUR
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ESRA COPUR creates collections that find their origin in the power of a collective way of thinking. The herd mentality is often depicted as negative but can be greatly empowering when visualized and redesigned into something positive. Merging design and installation, Esra reshapes existing items such as a plain white shirt as the start of a new way of thinking about our own basics in life - and how to collectively implement not only the practice of sustainability within the fashion industry, but also the notion of ethical and sociological issues around the globe that deserve our attention and active response.

An interest in the strength of three and its symbols, was the starting point that led Esra to develop a collection derived from a durable unity - ‘Threefold’. “The last six months have taught us that a collective way of thinking can actually change something we believe is wrong. I am convinced that we don’t need the mass to generate a new way of thinking. I believe sustainability should be at the core of every design process. Fashion is wasteful, and I don’t think we have any other choice but to change that, so let’s see it as an opportunity to work in a more diverse way.”

Instagram
Website

Photo: Petra Steenkamer

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Kevin Pleiter
Arnhem, The Netherlands

Kevin Pleiter graduated with honors in Fashion Design in 2019 at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem. With his solutions in knitwear, he tries to elaborate on new thoughts in the fashion and textile industry. Taking sustainability as an integrated way of working, another main focus lies on researching the fascinating relationship between tension and tactility; from the early yarn selection, to the final imaginary. His upcoming collection ‘Insert Artifact’ takes an effort in pushing the idea of knitwear by knitting in the most genuine and artisanal way as possible; questioning what comfort and nurturing design language really means?

“It’s my goal to design without the need to mention the importance of working sustainably. Until then, it’s important to show how to create without hurting the environment in such a big way. By knitting, I work entirely with a zero-waste approach. All my yarns are either dead stock, Ecotec, recycled or left-overs from previous graduation projects of myself and others. I like this limitation and the idea of basically working with what you can find. I’ll find a similar cone when I’m entirely finished with the old one, which explains the sudden slight changes in color and texture in some garments, taking the maximum out of the cone. Additionally, I research the relationship with the knit and the woven by integrating upcycled clothes in my designs.”

Instagram

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SANKIM
London, United Kingdom

London based South Korean designer SANKIM graduated with a Menswear MA degree at University of Westminster, London. He is specialized in inflatable fashion design. The collection ‘Anti-Covid19’ is inspired by a compilation of D.I.Y masks that were made during the coronavirus pandemic. As the shortage of face masks prompted people to come up with novel ways to combat the virus, this collection focuses on the masks people made out of supermarket's plastic bags. SANKIM rather says that he creates visual communication, not clothing. “I respond by observing social and political issues from various angles.”

All inflatable garments are made out of used supermarket plastic bags from SANKIM his flat mates

Instagram

Photo: Haylee Wong

The 4th edition of the Fashion Makes Sense Award is supported by the Provence of Limburg, Municipality of Maastricht, Meester Koetsier Foundation and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Just released: Open Call for the Fashion Makes Sense Award 2020

FASHIONCLASH presents: the 4th edition of Fashion Makes Sense Award, a supportive award for a new generation of designers with innovative and sustainable ideas for the future of fashion.

We are looking for fashion designers/brands to participate in the Fashion Makes Sense Award 2020!The aim of this competition is to encourage a new generation of designers to think about sustainability and to offer a stage for innovative and sustainable ideas. In addition, the competition exposes awareness about sustainability in the fashion industry to a broader audience.

There will be two awards as part of the competition:

• an audience prize of €1000, -

• a jury prize of €2500, -

Do you want to become 1 of the 10 finalists of the Fashion Makes Sense Award?
The deadline for submissions is Monday the 22nd of June. FASHIONCLASH will announce the 10 finalists in week 27 (29 June-3 July).

If you are selected as 1 of the 10 finalists of the FMSA, you will be participating in the Fashion Makes Sense Award Show as part of FASHIONCLASH Festival 2020 (27-29 November). Your work will also be exhibited at Lumière Maastricht from 1-13 December.

Questions about participating in the Fashion Makes Sense Award?
Please read the Frequently Asked Questions before getting in touch via fmsa@fashionclash.nl  

We look forward to receive your application!