Congratulations to SaltyCo for winning the Vogue Italia x YOOX award!
SaltyCo, the Venture Catalyst Challenge 2020 finalist, has been selected as the winner of the first ever Vogue YOOX Challenge – The Future of Responsible Fashion. The award is a joint programme organised by Vogue Italia and YOOX recognizes innovations that contributes to sustainable fashion. As the winning team, SaltyCo will receive a €50,000 prize alongside a mentored support with YOOX and a feature in Vogue Italia December edition.
SaltyCo is the first company that produces vegan, carbon-negative fabric using plants that can grow in dry and salty terrains watered with seawater. Their idea is to preserve freshwater, a highly scarced resource where it only accounts for 3% of the total amount water on the planet, through providing a sustainable textile option to the fashion industry.
This project is started in 2020 by Julian Ellis-Brown, Finlay Duncan, Antonia Jara, and Neloufar Taher from the MA(RCA)/MSc Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) programme. The team was selected for the Green Product Award as well as category winner and finalist of the Venture Catalyst Challenge 2020.
Meanwhile another Imperial team Petit Pli, a children wear brand that produces clothes that grow with children, was also nominated as finalist for the award with their dedication to tackle waste and promote sustainability in the fashion industry.
The Venture Catalyst Challenge is 7 week programme of evening masterclasses with 1-to-1 coaching that helps students and alumni to bring their innovative commercial ideas into reality. The VCC 2021 is open for application from 3 Dec 2020. Find out more about the Venture Catalyst Challenge.
