2024 MANTECO SUSTAINABILITY Award winning project

For the past two years, the MANTECO SUSTAINABILITY prize has been awarded to IFM's Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design students. This fashion competition invites participants to explore and push the boundaries of eco-design and circular fashion. Students in the program benefit from a course given by Manteco on the principles of circular fashion, and are then asked to produce a project that reflects their vision of the circular economy and sustainability in the fashion industry.

The second edition of the prize was won by students in Group 9 of the Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design for their “Corporate Cocoon” project. Group members Sophie Gontard, Emily Atkin, Maja Lenhard, Leander Aiguier and Paul Reisinger stood out from the 15 competing groups thanks to their avant-garde design.

The winning project, called “Corporate Cocoon”, is an innovative, multifunctional garment that at first glance looks like a simple garment bag, but ingeniously transforms into a complete work outfit. The outfit comprises a versatile coat, fitted pants and a classic sleeveless top. By opening two side zippers, the coat's sleeves appear. Then, unzipping the centre zipper reveals the pants and top inside. Simply slip on the pants and zip them up, then button the top for a complete professional outfit that's both stylish and functional.

The students made a point of integrating sustainability into every aspect of their creation: “For this project, we kept sustainability in mind. We are only using one material, and because of that, it can be recycled as one piece. Since the zippers that we use are only topstitched, they can easily be removed. The pattern pieces are mostly simple, straight cuts to minimize the fabric waste as much as possible.”