Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Singapore's first sustainable fashion competition successfully ended yesterday with a grand finale organized at lush green Hort Park.



The competition which has been underway since April this year was jointly organized by Singapore Workforce Development Agency and the Textile and Fashion Federation (TAFF). A total of 44 fashion designers participated in the competition.



I have been closely involved with this competition from the beginning that included conducting workshops for the participating designers to help them understand deeper sustainability issues in the fashion value chain. It was gratifying to see the seven finalists presenting their sustainable fashion collection in the grand finale fashion show. These finalists have already received prominent coverage in Urban, The Straits Times' fashion magazine on Friday.



Mr Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State (MOS) for Ministry of Trade and Industry was the Guest of Honour at the grand finale of the competition today.



WDA’s Chief Executive, Mr Wong Hong Kuan said: “The transformation of the textile and fashion industry has presented opportunities for the workforce to continue to build their knowledge and capabilities in this field. WDA will continue to develop new programmes in emerging skill areas with the industry to provide a pipeline of skilled talent to ensure that the industry continues to stay relevant and competitive to enjoy sustainable growth.”



Early in the morning, I joined four other judges to decide the winners. Three winners were selected. Two of them will travel to Paris Fashion Week in a few weeks as their prize in addition to cash booty of $1500 each.



The third winner will represent Singapore in a regional round in Hong Kong organized by the Society of Dyers and Colourist (SDC) award, a United Kingdom, London competition, called the SDC International Design Competition 2011 that shared the same vision of sustainability.