The Live Eco Remake Design Challenge, South Africa’s premier sustainable fashion and object design competition, proudly brought to you by Pick n Pay in partnership with the Cape Town Fashion Council, last night announced their 2015 winners for both the fashion and object categories, at a well attended awards evening and design installation held at The Bello Studio in Woodstock, Cape Town.
First place in the fashion category went to Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) second year student, Werner Boshoff, for his “Urban Valkyrie” collection. Inspired by Scandinavian mythology, the Urban Valkyrie clothing range has a silhouette that is tight at the core and extended at the limbs – masculine in its approach yet feminine in its refinement.
With the 2015 theme being Urban Luxe, Werner was inspired to create garments that translated into the “ultimate urban luxury”: space and the feeling of being free. “The idea of a battlefield, as it’s being used in this concept, enjoys the freedom of creativity we have in an ultra-modern society. Even though the clock is being turned back in nurturing quality craftsmanship, and through the use of environmentally-friendly fabrics and finishes, it celebrates the choice each of us have to dress in a way that makes us feel victorious, look invincible and be free,” says Werner when explaining the rationale behind his collection.
Werner wins the opportunity to design a capsule collection for Hemporium, to be sold in stores in 2016. 2nd prize went to fellow CPUT 2nd year, Justine Pulford, for her “Autumn Knits” collection; while the 2015 special prize for fashion, went to emerging designer, Hannah-Rose Smith, for her innovative upcycling and zero-waste techniques used in her “Urban Transformation” collection.
Tony Budden, judge and CEO of Hemporium had this to say about the 2015 winners: “This year was by far the hardest year of the competition to judge as the quality of the designs has gone up so much and I loved all of them. The passion of the entrants, and their understanding of the issue of sustainability, and their interpretation of the brief was inspiring to say the least. Werner showed amazing flair and versatility in his designs and the presentation he made to the judging panel was first class. I look forward to seeing what designs he comes up with for his capsule collection for Hemporium. Justine presented the hemp/organic cotton knits in a beautiful “ready-to-market” way with some classic designs dyed with coffee and amped up a notch with the bamboo knitted teal and cyan details . Hannah exhibited wonderful panache, especially with her avant garde look that morphed into so many beautiful options to wear with a few minor tweaks. Her upcycling of existing garments in novel ways, and interpretation of “Urban Luxe” is inspiring, and I am most impressed with her work. All the finalists deserve accolades for their hard work, and it was very difficult choosing the top 3, let alone the winner. I am very happy to see such brilliant sustainable designs, and I hope that this experience will influence these talented young designers to pursue a career in sustainable fashion, helping to right some of the wrongs so commonly associated with the industry. Well done to all involved.”
First place in the object category went to Design Time School of Interior Design 2nd year student, Drew Wolf, for his upcycled lounge chair, “Belted”. The chair is made from weaved, upcycled seatlbelts, with the frame being constructed from old timber floor boards from demolished squash courts.
“Drew produced a well researched product that ticks all the trend boxes for a successful chair design in today’s times. Today’s trends, tomorrow’s classics,” says judge and industrial designer, Ryan Matchett. 2nd place went to fellow Design Time 2nd year student, Kristina Nielsen for her object, “Glass Gardens” – made using upcycled glass bottles and various glass blowing techniques. Kristina also earned herself the 2015 special prize for object, sponsored by The Maker Station in Woodstock.
Megan Schumann, managing editor at ELLE Decoration and judge on this year’s panel had this to say about the 2015 object winners designs: “We at ELLE Decoration are always supportive of these initiatives that empower our young designers. With five fantastic finalists the competition was extremely tight. The official winners, Drew and Kristina, presented the most sustainably manufactured product, with concepts that were well developed and ready to be put in stores. We are so excited to see how the remaining finalists develop their products further – the potential in all of them (the products and the designers) is immense and had all of us automatically snowballing ideas in conversation.”
View all the 2015 Remake Design Challenge finalists collections here and objects here. Images from the 2015 awards evening and design installation can be found here.
You can find out more on www.remakechallenge.com or follow the competition on social media via the hashtag #remakechallenge.
The Remake Design Challenge is proudly sponsored by Pick n Pay in partnership with The Cape Town Fashion Council.
