Jak&Jil, from fashion blog to sustainable fashion award

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Sustainable Fashion Award - courtesy of Jak&Jil

For those who do not know Jak&Jil, just know that it was, along with ‘The Sartorialist’, one of the first fashion blogs ever; founded in 2005 by the Canadian photographer Tommy Ton, known today for his photographic services on Style.com and GQ.com, the blog was a street style site that initially covered only the Toronto area and then expanded until to become a global phenomenon, with followers from all over the world. Today Jak&Jil, after being a model for many fashion blogs to come, has become a multi-award-winning online fashion mall platform present in ten countries, including Italy.

Jak&Jil, who is now part of Mucca, a tech start-up focused on looking to the future of fashion, has become a sort of patron looking for emerging and established talents in the sustainable fashion sector, so it has initiated a contest, the ‘Sustainable Fashion Award ‘, which rewards precisely those designers who are adopting or have already adopted responsible practices that include materials, manufacturing techniques, environmental impact and work conditions, all this for a high quality design.

In detail, among the eligible sustainable practices there are: handmade, local manufacturing, develop fair trade, smart design, zero fabric waste, animal welfare, use of recycled, upcycled or organic materials and the consideration of the entire life cycle of the product.

In addition to the above rules, the designer must have completed a full sustainable collection or project that can be also one garment but that must fit into at least one of the socially-conscious and environmentally-friendly actions described. The winning designer will receive a prize of 3,000 dollars, while another 3,000 dollars will be awarded to one of the NGO partners of the ‘Sustainable Fashion Award’ chosen by the designer himself.

The main requirements for submitting an entry are: a description of the project up to 1500 characters that mention how it is eligible as sustainable, then the names of those who should be credited for the design and production. Besides it is requested an image or images of the project, from 1 up to 20 photographs. You can however find all the necessary information on the contest page, along with the indications to enter. There is time until 23:59 GMT on Friday 31 August 2018. After the application period closes, there will be a first selection of those projects that provide the proper material and are eligible as sustainable. Thus, a high quality international judging committee will evaluate the valid projects by assigning a score from 0 to 10 to each one of these criterias: innovation, design, technical quality and sustainability.

Regarding the judging committee let me say, with a hint of pride, that among the excellent names there is also that of Sass Brown, the English journalist expert in ethical fashion who was the first guest of the blog for ‘The monthly interview’!

Last but not least, eco-à-porter becomes one of the minor partners of the ‘Sustainable Fashion Award’ with this post. And it is proud of it.

 

 

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