The Implementation Plan for China-Italy Youth Future Fashion Design Competition
I. Background and Purpose
On November 5, 2020, as China and Italy commemorated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations, Tsinghua University and Politecnico di Milano jointly launched the “China-Italy Year of Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. It is designed to gather innovative talent from universities at home and abroad and people from all walks of life, enhance exchanges and cooperation on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship between the youth of the two countries, and promote innovation in technology and policy solutions, in order to inject new vitality into the global sustainable development.
On April 19, 2021, when General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Tsinghua University to celebrate its 110th anniversary, he met faculty members and students at a symposium and delivered significant remarks. As Xi pointed out, “fine arts, arts, science, and technology complement and promote each other”, and “it is important to boost our cultural confidence, take beauty as the medium, and strengthen international cultural exchanges.” Therefore, the China-Italy Youth Future Fashion Design Competition was launched to lead the youth to follow his guidance. As one of the major activities of the “China-Italy Year of Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, the competition encourages the fusion of arts and technology, takes beauty as the medium, builds up an international platform for fashion innovation, and explores the cutting-edge trends for leading the future fashion.
II. Features
Integrate and innovate arts and technology to tackle the common challenges for human development;
Upgrade and transform the service sector to facilitate the new look of sustainable development of fashion;
Promote the government-industry-university-research interaction to guide cooperation and exchanges on international fashion design;
Discover cutting-edge designers to advance the reform of fashion design;
Build a platform with beauty as the medium to lead the future development of global fashion design.
The competition will integrate resources in fashion design, innovative education, academic research, and industrial incubation, deepen the fusion of design innovation, production, and education, and discover and cultivate cutting-edge design talent with creativity and vitality. It will also explore the future of global fashion design, fashion technology, and fashion lifestyle, promote the organic synergy between the chains of education and talent cultivation and the chains of industry and innovation, and facilitate the transformation of innovative achievements of design into strengths, in a bid to accelerate the upgrading of industries in the two countries, satisfy people’s aspiration for better life, and consolidate the sustainable development of global design.
III. Goals
(i) Build Distinctive Brands
It is necessary to promote the competition, spread its reputation in and beyond China and Italy, enhance the engagement and recognition, and foster its own brands.
(ii) Construct the Innovation Network
It is needed to establish a well-functioning organization and a working mechanism with complete rules and working mode to construct a global network for design innovation and cooperation.
(iii) Promote the Transformation of Achievements
It is essential to accumulate successful cases of participation in competitions and transformation of awarded projects, and accomplish the deep combination and value realization of innovation and entrepreneurship projects and industries through investment, market application, technical transfer, team recruitment, etc.
IV. Organizations and Working Mechanism
(i) Organizations
1. Hosted by: Tsinghua University, Politecnico di Milano, and Shaoxing People’s Government
2. Organized by: China-Italy Design Innovation Hub of Tsinghua University, CCYL Tsinghua University Committee, Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University, The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Education Alliance of China, POLIHUB of Politecnico di Milano, and the Construction and Management Committee of Zhejiang China Light & Textile City Group Co., Ltd.
3. Co-organized by: Global Innovation Exchange of Tsinghua University, China-Africa Leadership Development Institute Tsinghua University (CALDI-THU), Tsinghua Southeast Asia Center (Tsinghua SEA), Tsinghua University Latin America Center, Asian Universities Alliance, China-UK Association for the Humanities in Higher Education, Global MOOC Alliance, Schwarzman College of Tsinghua University, Center for Japanese Studies of Tsinghua University, and Tsinghua University Russian Institute
(ii) Working Mechanism
The organization of this competition consists of the leading group, the advisory committee, the expert committee, the organizing committee, and the secretariat, with staff elected in accordance with the Organizing Constitution.
V. Theme and Orientation
(i)Theme:
Tech for Fashion
(i)Slogan:
Science and Technology Empower Future Fashion Design
(iii)Orientation:：
-Seize the cutting-edge trends in global fashion
-Integrate high-quality resources in universities and industries
-Gather talented designers with influence and creativity
-Build an international platform for design exchanges
-Promote the application of innovative achievements
VI. Targets
The competition warmly welcomes innovative young practitioners of fashion design from China and Italy (under 45 years old) as well as global artists, designers, students and faculty members majoring in design from universities, design lovers, studios, and companies.
VII. Requirements
(i)Categories:
1. Fashion Design
It is oriented at original fashion design proposals or product designs, including but not limited to dyed and woven fabric design, apparel design, jewelry design, household product design, cultural and innovative design, etc.
2. Fashion Technology
It is oriented at conceptual design, product design, or technological innovation in the fashion industry which combines arts and technology, including but not limited to the development and application of new materials, intellectual manufacturing, wearable technology, intellectual design tools or platforms, display tools or platforms for extended reality (XR), etc.
3. Fashion Lifestyle
It is oriented at designs in pursuit of a better life, which suggest new scenarios where fashion trends and desirable lifestyles are closely combined, including but not limited to household and furniture design, smart home, experience gallery, interpretive gallery, etc.
(ii) Entry Requirements
1.The entry shall be designed in accordance with the theme.
2.The entry can be designed and submitted as a series, with up to four pieces of works.
3.The entry submitted must be original. In the event of any copyright disputes including plagiarism, imitation, etc., the participant will be disqualified from the competition and subject to legal liabilities.
4.The entry shall be submitted with one to three pages of design drawings (A3 size, 420mm*297mm, 300dpi of resolution, JPG format) and a video for description (60 to 120 seconds, MP4 format). The first page shall be the primary drawing (including the title of work, design concept, rendering and description), and the remaining pages shall provide a detailed description of work including design theme, design concept, structural drawing, rendering, photos, technical specification, etc. All text shall be in Chinese or English without any indications of the author’s name or marks or any participating enterprises’ name, otherwise the entry will be considered invalid.
5.Material objects or models (or other detailed information) will be requested from the finalists for the final review and display.
6.International teams shall take Chinese or English as their working language during the competition.
7.All submitted copies, photos, videos, etc. will not be returned. Participants shall keep their own manuscripts. Participants enjoy full ownership of their intellectual property rights. The organizing committee has the right to publish the entries (including design drafts and finished products), including publicity, exhibition, performance, publication and distribution, etc.
ⅲ. Method of Participation:
Participants shall sign up and submit the entry through the official website of the competition.
Official website:
Ⅷ. Schedule
1. Initiation: May 6, 2021
2. Entry Collection: July 8 – September 6, 2021
Participants may register their user accounts on the official website of the competition between July 6 and September 6, 2021, and complete the registration information. Participants can sign up as individuals or teams (with up to five members).
3. First-round Evaluation: September 6 – September 12, 2021
The organizing committee will organize an expert panel for the first round of online selection to pick out 100 participants for the next round;
4. Second-round Evaluation: September 13 – September 20, 2021
The organizing committee will organize an expert panel for the second round of online selection to pick out 30 finalists with their names published on the official website;
5. Final Round Evaluation and the Award Ceremony: October 26, 2021
The organizing committee will notify the finalists to submit material objects or models for the final display. The award ceremony and the exhibition will be organized as important supporting events of the World Textile Merchandising Conference with the engagement of invited guests from the design industry across the world.
Ⅸ. Awards
1. Special Award of the Zhejiang China Light & Textile Industrial City Group (3 items)
Fashion Design x 1 (RMB 120,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources)
Fashion Technology x 1 (RMB 120,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources)
Fashion Lifestyle x 1 (RMB 120,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources)
2. Special Awards (27 items)
Award of the Most Popular Design x 5 (RMB 10,000), Award of the Most Potential Design x 5 (RMB 10,000), Award of the Most Commercially Valuable Design x 5 (RMB 10,000), Award of Innovative Designer x 5 (RMB 10,000), Award of Excellence x 7 (RMB 10,000).
3. The prize, certificate, and trophy will be awarded by the organizing committee.
4、The awarded works will be qualified for free presentation at the special exhibition held by China-Italy Design Innovation Hub during 2022 Milan Design Week. The prize winners will be qualified for free enrollment to 2022 Tsinghua Global Summer School.
Ⅹ. Supporting Elements
1. Policies
The local policies will display the local and industrial policy advantages to attract project application, draw global resources and serve the local economy.
2. Achievements Transformation
Project sessions will be organized after the competition to link the government, industries and projects, facilitate the application of programs aimed at resource exchanges, progress advancement and result delivery and drive industrial innovation and development.
3. Supporting Events
In order to enrich the competition, the organizing committee intends to organize supporting events including salons, workshops, achievement exhibitions, etc. themed on future fashion design for providing participants with more opportunities to exchange ideas and display innovative designs during the competition.
Ⅺ. Complaint and Supervision
The organization of the competition is subject to social supervision throughout the entire process, with the implementation plan published ahead. The whole process will be videotaped, and relevant evaluation materials will be archived after each stage for future reference.
In order to strengthen the supervision and ensure the fairness, justice and openness of the competition, the organizing committee and the expert committee will supervise the evaluation process, while the secretariat will assist in handling complaints from participants and the public. Contacts:
Tel: 010-62780563
E-mail:cidih@tsinghua.edu.cn