Submitting Designs: Sustainable Fashion Designer of the Year Awards

This September, we’re bringing a fashion competition to Street Works Earth!

Registered designers can submit their designs on this page: we'll add a submission form soon and announce when it's available in Instagram. In the meantime, we're releasing our sustainability guidelines as they are represented in the submission form, so designers can start thinking creatively about how their work fits in.

Submission form

We’re setting a minimum sustainability standard for designers, while creating space to see how standards should go up as they start selling their work. Materials and Basic Worker Respect are required. All others are optional and simply help the community understand your practice!  Your responses will be published for the community, so choose your words with care!

If you registered and identify more as a business, we decided to not set a different standard for you this year without understanding more about business dynamics. But we do know that the standards are higher and depend on things like size and profit. Please take that into account when you submit and use your description or "Other" to explain how size and profit affect your choices.

These options aren’t meant to be rigid: if you think your design has a sustainable practice we’ve overlooked, choose “Other” and describe it at the end. You can also email collective@makejusticenormal.org. We trust you to answer honestly and will not verify answers. If we have questions, we'll follow up! We reserve the right to decline designs that don’t align with the spirit of these guidelines.

About (Required)

• Designer*: Designers must be pre-registered! If you pre-registered, you should be able to select your name from the list. If you don't see your name and need to register, please contact us.

• Design Title*: This is the name of your design.

• Images*: Upload up to 6 designs (front, back, angles) of your design on a model.  This is what the community will see for voting.

• Description*: Explain your design, including why you think it is sustainable, and how. There is no word count: we’ll publish this for the community to read when they vote, so choose your words with love & brevity, because people won’t read it otherwise!

Essential Practices (Required)

Materials*: Required: About 80% or more of the material you use are at least one of the following. Designers must use at least one sustainable material strategy. This applies to garments & accessories. You can select multiple.

• Secondhand, vintage, or repurposed materials

• Production offcuts (leftover textiles from factories)

• Unsold surplus inventory (deadstock)

• Recycled materials

• Locally sourced materials (reduces transport emissions and supports local economies)

• Certified sustainable materials (eg, GOTS, OEKO-TEX)

• Other (material)

Basic Worker Respect*: Required: Designers must treat people in their practice with respect. Even those of us making designs all by ourselves rely on people to help us show them, celebrate them, buy materials, and more.

• I create safe, respectful, and non-exploitative collaboration with anyone involved in making the work. This includes safe working conditions and fair wages or mutual aid.

Advanced Practices (Optional)

Design: Strategies that emphasize durability, versatility, and waste reduction.

• Reduces waste through efficient pattern design

• Adaptable, repairable, modular, or multi-use garments

• Durable fabrics and strong construction designed for longevity

• Other (design)

Worker Respect Across Systems: Ways to express worker respect in how you organize, buy materials, and more.

• Materials sourced from suppliers that maintain fair and safe labor practices

• Works with unions, worker cooperatives, or collective structures

• Practicing worker ownership, profit-sharing, or cooperative design

• Other (worker respect)

Production, Distribution, & Circularity: Practices that reduce overproduction or support circular fashion.

• Prioritizes local or community-based distribution (markets, pop-ups, local retail)

• Direct-to-consumer or community sales (reduces intermediaries and excess inventory)

• Minimizes unsold inventory or overproduction (made-to-order, small batches)

• Take-back or repair program for reuse or recycling

• Other (p,d,&c)

Transparency & Accountability: Ways to make practices visible and verifiable. This is especially important as you grow a business.

• Certified fair labor practices (eg, Fairtrade)

• Publishes evidence of fair labor practices

• Shares information about materials, sourcing, or environmental impact

• Audits and publishes labor and environmental conditions across supply chain

• Other (t&a)

Political Advocacy: Fighting for industry-wide improvement through policies and regulations.

• Participates in petitions, hearings, or campaigns related to fashion sustainability

• Supports labor or environmental justice initiatives (through volunteering, collaboration, or promotion)

• Donates to or materially supports policy advocacy

• Other (political advocacy)

Cultural Advocacy: Fighting for industry-wide improvements through culture.

• Participates in reuse-focused events (clothing swaps, repair cafes, community workshops)

• Teaches or documents repair, styling, or reuse practices

• Amplifies sustainable fashion practices through media or community work

• Other (cultural advocacy)

Explaining "Other"

If you click “Other” for any of the options above, this is a required catch-all open field to explain why.

Program Architect