Fashion for the future: Twyg awards breathe life into sustainable fashion

A little more than a decade ago, the Danish Fashion Institute held one of the first sustainable fashion summits in Copenhagen. At the time, few took the idea seriously. T and the notion of “green being the new black” was more a jokey stab at the sustainability officers who sat at the back of the room with their clip boards while the rest of the fashion world cut, sewed and discarded to their hearts content, often with the help of sweatshops in far-flung countries.

Though change has come slowly, sustainability is finally sexy and everyone who’s anyone in the fashion world wants to jump on the bandwagon. These days, you’re no one if your design strategy doesn’t include some effort to right the wrongs that fashion, especially the fast type, has done to our planet. Most fashion brands, and certainly the new, hot, young designers and labels — from the mass market to luxury — are placing sustainability at the heart of their messages.

According to Vanessa Friedman writing in the New York Times, fashion brands now insist on having ESG (environmental, social and governance) reports the size of small books in their manifestos. “Chief executives are clamouring to talk about how they’re evolving their businesses to combat climate change and pledges to reach carbon neutrality abound,” she says.

So when you talk about being ahead of the game, Twyg, a platform that for more than a decade has created content, events and campaigns to promote a way of being that’s sustainable, circular, regenerative, caring and ethical, was in the conversation from the start. Its founder, Jackie May, is passionate about bringing sustainable fashion practices into popular consciousness and her team of equally passionate eco-warriors is determined to do what it can to help rectify the damage the fashion industry has done to the planet. 

To this end, for the past four years the Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards have recognised designers in different categories who are doing what they can to change the way the industry operates.

These categories include the Accessories Award, presented to an accessory brand that implements ethical labour practices, limits toxic chemicals and uses sustainable materials to create quality collections that consider the end of life of each item; the Innovative Design and Materials Award, presented to the designer who uses innovative techniques to reduce fashion’s negative impact and shows commitment to using sustainable fabrics; the Nicholas Coutts Award, presented to a designer who uses artisanal craft techniques such as weaving, embroidery or botanical dyeing to make fashion that celebrates these skills; the Student Award, presented to the student collection that addresses the challenges of sustainability in the most exciting and beautiful way; the Trans-seasonal Award, presented to a collection, garment or brand that promotes trans-seasonal, multi-functionality and versatile style; the Retail Award, presented to a retailer or retailing initiative that enhances sustainability, including preloved/gently worn, swap shops, garment rental and similar activities; CMT or Manufacturer Award, presented to a “cut, make and trim” factory or manufacturer of clothes or accessories that’s socially and environmentally conscious and/or whose business practices are socially and environmentally responsible; and, finally, the Influencer Award, presented to a personality or think-fluencer who promotes slow, sustainable fashion and has sparked relevant conversations, explained sustainable issues and cautioned against harming nature on social media and other platforms.

In addition, each year there’s an overall winner who receives the Changemaker Award and R100,000 from Country Road for having the highest scores in the design categories, (Student, Accessory, Trans-seasonal, Coutts, Innovative Design and Materials Award) judged against the criteria set for the award. This year it was won by Cape Town’s Cleo Droomer, for his Droomer label. According to his website, the brand makes meaning through garments that support regenerative living to honour and learn from our diverse and often forgotten heritages. Droomer wasn’t able to be at the awards at Cape Town’s Mount Nelson Hotel last week, but he spoke to guests via video. He said: “It’s so wonderful to embark on a new journey and have it seen and recognised. It’s been such a big departure from what I’ve done before.”

From the segregation and forced removals of his grandparents from their coastal homes to his distant ancestors who were trafficked across the sea, the ocean came to feel haunted to him. As a designer, to address this discomfort, Droomer said he deconstructed and reconstituted the heirloom pieces he’d collected to source the fabrics he needed to create his “life jackets”. “The idea was to keep our haunted histories afloat in the collective conversations we’re having around ‘ocean heritage’. The ocean is a sacred cemetery for the ancestors of many South Africans. Despite contemporary music, art, poetry and literature commenting on our oceans within necropolitical policy, neither the Atlantic nor Indian oceans are recognised by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) or Unesco as heritage sites for the descendants of enslaved people,” he said.

“The UN World Heritage List recognises Auschwitz and the killing fields of Cambodia, for example, as sites of inhumane, cruel and methodical efforts to deny human dignity and the right to live of some, but the drowning of enslaved people in our oceans has not been included.” Droomer’s (Life) Jackets project is an attempt to start conversation around this topic. “If an activity like exploration for oil and gas is to go ahead, it should have careful consideration and consultation with the descendants of enslaved Africans and the people of the diaspora from East Asia,” he said.  

There’s a long way to go before we come close to “greening” the fashion industry and the way forward is complicated. As Friedman says, “sustainable fashion” is an oxymoron. “Sustainable” implies “able to continue over a period of time”, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, while “Fashion” implies change over time. To reconcile the two is difficult. “The crucial issue for each of us, no matter which side of the equation we are on, is thinking about and understanding the effects of the choices we make so we can make better ones in the future,” says Friedman.

The Twyg Fashion Awards highlighted the efforts of designers to address this, designers who are putting the planet first while making beautiful, covetable items that create jobs and allow for self-expression. Katherine Mary Pichulik, who won the Accessories Award for her brand, PICHULIK, said on the night: “Every designer who puts sustainability at the forefront of their designs is a winner.”