Launched in February during the Milano Fashion Week, the contest, based on the collaboration of YOOX and Vogue Italia, received numerous applications among which the scientific committee selected the finalists, hailing from all over the world.

The jury, composed of outstanding figures from the fashion world, has chosen the winner, SaltyCo, a project started in 2020 by a group of students from London’s Imperial College and the Royal College of Art: Julian Ellis-Brown, a mechanical engineer, Finlay Duncan, a chemist, Antonia Jara, an integrated designer and Neloufar Taher, a business/design strategist. The goal of SaltyCo’s is to reduce the consumption of freshwaters  which today has a high impact on the planet, by growing plants that thrive in dry and salty terrains watered with seawater. SaltyCo uses the fibers of these special plants to create high quality natural fabrics, light and at the same time insulating, with a lower production cost compacted to polyester. The SaltyCo fabrics are vegan and carbon-negative and they are also beneficial to the environment, as the plants release oxygen into the atmosphere. 

In addition, the SaltyCo project has an important social impact: after winning the Vogue YOOX Challenge - The Future of Responsible Fashion award granted by YOOX and Vogue Italia, the project will now be extended also to Bangladesh where the growing sea level has salinized over 105 millions of hectares of farm land.

Focusing on the use of seawater, the most widespread resource at our disposal, to help saving on the scarcest one, freshwater, SaltyCo prevailed over the other high-level finalist projects. This innovative and sustainable fashion initiative earns €50,000 and a special tutoring to help SaltyCo carry out their ambitious and highly innovative fashion project.