Last week we held our first Circular Design Awards, the culmination of a 6 month programme of education, inspiration and learning for designers.

What an incredible night! It gave us the opportunity to celebrate the best of emerging talent in sustainable fashion design, and to recognise the outstanding creativity and innovation from the Award Winners. On show were some of the many and varied ways that clothes can be designed for the circular economy.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, there were over 150 of you! and helped make our first Awards celebration a huge success.

It was also a chance for industry leaders in both fashion and sustainability to get together around the shared goal of a circular economy in New Zealand and talk about fashions journey on this path.

The Judges, including Peri Drysdale, Emily Miller-Sharma, Ron te Kawa and Dan Ahwa, commented that overall it was an incredible group of entries, very strong for the first year of the awards. What particularly resonated was the wide range of waste streams tackled, and the creativity and innovation shown in bringing new life to old textiles.

We celebrated the winners and finalists with a showcase exhibition of their creations expertly styled by Dan Ahwa from VIVA.

Theresa Gattung, co-founder of Awards partner the Gattung Foundation, reiterated the importance of our whakapapa in driving forward a more sustainable industry, and spoke of her love of, and connection to fashion and craft.

Mindful Fashion Co-founder Kate Sylvester spoke of the importance of the industry getting behind future focussed initiatives such as these Awards and our Industry Study as we work to create an innovative, full-circle and thriving future for the industry in Aotearoa.

A sincere thank you to our Awards and Gala event partners who have been incredible in supporting the Award programme and gala event. And a special thanks to our Judges, a prestigious lineup of industry, design and innovation specialists who selected the finalists and winners!

Discover the inaugural Award winners of the Mindful Fashion Circular Design Award 2023 here.

Finalists 2023