Taiwan Fashion Design Award on concepts of ‘Sustainability and Design Creativity’
Sri Lankan Fashion designer Ruwanthi Pavithra Gajadeera became the winner of the ‘Taiwan Fashion Design Award 2021’ (TFDA) which has been successfully concluded at Taipei Fashion Week, in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan on October 6th. Among nearly 450 designers from 18 countries and regions including Europe, America and Asia, Ruwanthi Gajadeera from Sri Lanka became the adjudged the winner of the first prize for her creation on the theme ‘kaeli–A Sustainable Collection’
(lE,s ¡;sridr tl;=jla) and bagged the grand prize worth US$10,000.
Ruwanthi Gajadeera, a highly enthusiastic fashion designer who studied at Ladies College and Academy Of Design (AOD) in Colombo, with a passion for perfecting Sri Lankan heritage crafts such Handloom, Beeralu (Bobbin Lace), and Natural Dyes to produce innovative and sustainable textiles and garments. Ruwanthi is also the first South Asian to represent and win the grand award at the Taiwan Fashion Design Awards.
TFDA launched in 1987 as a local contest, the Taiwan Fashion Design Award 2021 marks its 35th edition. Hosted by the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan and organized by the Taiwan Textile Federation, it’s the first official fashion competition in Asia. It was first opened as an international competition in 2013 (27th), and this year is the 9th international competition in series.
In conjunction with Taipei Fashion Week, the contest this year has got a great response among emerging designers from all over the world, making the contest even more competitive and internationally. Over the past 35 years, Taiwanese government has provided students of design schools and emerging designers with a platform to demonstrate their creativity.
Taiwan’s strict anti-epidemic measures eventually enabled 2021 TFDA to be held as scheduled. The preparation process of the event faces more challenges than those in the past. In addition to the inability of foreign finalists to travel to Taiwan, it would be also difficult to allow viewers to come to the ceremony in person as in the past. Therefore, in addition to physical fashion show, the online live broadcast of the ceremony was synchronous execution. The international jury from the UK, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan also connected with each other online in a real-time manner, and the online scoring system also allowed the smooth selection and decision-making by the jury for the finals. The members of the jury were composed of renowned masters of the international fashion fields, which included Nao Takekoshi, the international boutique designer; Stephane Dou, the Taiwan fashion designer; Christina Dean, the founder of Redress; Valéria Bessolo Llopiz, ELLE International Director; Jane Singer, Managing Director of Inside Fashion; Tomonori Matsui, CEO of the Japanese fashion integration marketing company ONE O Ltd.; and Charlotte Chiang, Director of TTF’s Textiles and Fashion Design Department.
The jury recognized that each work has its own unique creativity from design thinking, noting that “Whether it is fashionable, elegant, or street fashion, the designers were able to consider the concepts of environmental-friendliness and sustainability from the very beginning of the process of designing, such as using clearance tabs to demonstrate the design creativity. As for the production processes, the all-in-one approach was adopted to reduce waste during the weaving, and for the clothing, the mix and match outfit in a multi-way manner was deeply and thoroughly explored, which presented the profound thinking from human relations to caring for the environment that reflected the spirit of sustainability at all stages of production of clothing.”
Two Second Prizes and three third places were awarded at the contest.