Culture & Heritage Award

Submission
The Culture & Heritage Award is open to all final-year students, from all backgrounds, across all fashion courses registered under GFF membership who wish to embrace difference. This award has two pathways, each with its own award

1. Culture & Heritage Award Non-Design—Projects within portfolios and publications, such as marketing projects, magazine publications, photoshoots, and research projects.
2. Culture & Heritage Award Design – Projects with a 3D outcome such as clothing collections, footwear, and accessories. These still need to be accompanied by a portfolio and body of work.

The Graduate Fashion Foundation acknowledges national and global race and cultural inequalities and the impact that they can have on the lived experiences of marginalised people. This award has been created to give students a platform to promote an awareness of the vital conversations that address race, ethnicity, and culture. It aims to embrace and acknowledge other experiences and cultures while highlighting the limited representation of under-represented people within the fashion industry.

The award is intended to give students the confidence to open conversations and highlight under-represented areas. The award will celebrate and acknowledge work that demonstrates an enhanced knowledge and understanding of the topic. The work must reflect a culturally informed perspective that challenges race inequalities and cultural inequalities and celebrates national/global contributions made by marginalised people.

The winning work must provide a refreshing and innovative direction that may address race, ethnicity, and/or culture through lived experiences of under-represented people and the following:

• Celebrates the influence of culture and heritage on a student’s work

• Explores historical, political, contextual knowledge and understanding

• Protests against inequality and injustice

Criteria

• A strong focus on culture and heritage

• Visionary thinking, passion, and courage

• Authentic, resourceful, creative inquiry

• Opinion-led with extensive research or fashion commentary

  Celebrate national/global conversations.
  
  An initial digital submission of no more than 15 pages for the nomination shortlisting. The full physical body of work and/or samples will be displayed for the final judging session. The nomination can be a maximum of 10 MB, illustrating the final project and a supporting statement.