Check back soon for information about our 2023 showcase season!
Wear We Are Going creates a platform for innovative eco-fashion concepts, showcasing creativity and hopefulness in addressing global ecological challenges. With a focus on the themes of beauty, resilience, and adaptation, we highlight designs that speak to our shared environmental future.
Thank you to everyone that submitted their amazing concepts to us! You can watch our 2022 Showcase event and learn more about this season’s designers below!
You can also visit our archive to see the designs and showcase from our inaugural season in 2021!
2022 Showcase Event
2022 Finalists
Design Concept
My design is an Avant Garde statement piece. I was inspired by the Japanese feudal mens pants style and semi plunging neckline for the top with a sustainable twist. Anybody can wear this garment. Since COVID our bodies have fluctuated in sizes and we have had to get rid of many clothes that don’t fit anymore. This garment is specifically made to be functional no matter what size the wearer may be. Beauty is ever changing and we should always empower people for who they are. This garment is adjustable, interchangeable, and reversible. The bodice straps and pants are adjustable. Both shoulders will have drawstrings so you can adjust the width of the straps.The bodice will tie in the back. The pants are adjustable around the waist with ribbon. The pants will also have three rows of holes on each side so the leg has adjustable sizing by tying ribbons that come with the garment. The holes will be made by using a button hole sewing stitch. This piece is also reversible as well so depending on what you are feeling that day you can still look fabulous.
The fabric will be organic linen that will be naturally dyed. There will be two different dyeing methods for this look. One is using elderberries to get a red hue. Then the second method is using carob pods to attain a dark grayish black hue. The top and bottom of this piece is also detachable so that you can mix and match your look. Linen is a biodegradable fabric so it won’t pollute the earth as it will decompose over time. For creating this design I will be sourcing my fabrics from Swatchon, a sustainable fabrics website. For the ingredients for dyeing I would purchase them locally.
Materials
Organic Linen,Carob Pods, Elder Berries,Thread.
About the Artist
I am a newbie fashion designer starting out and finding my own place in the world. I have participated in two wearable art contests. I had won one award and got an honorable mention for Teen Stylin at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I also participated in the Eileen Fisher fashion leadership program. I am hoping in the future I will be able to create a Avant Garde sustainable fashion brand.
Follow the artist on Instagram: @kagami_no_yume
Design Concept
Let’s celebrate the embodiment of beauty, resilience and adaptation in the Divine Feminine for all genders. This dress, sketched on a non-binary individual, is made for movement, symbolic of the Divine Feminine’s fluidity and freedom. I’ve incorporated healing earth elements like twigs, rose quartz and citrine stones. The fabric is deadstock 100% silk crepe de chine and chiffon. Once the wearer is finished with the dress, they can return it to be upcycled or have a burial ritual to honor its lifecycle. By treasuring our garments as sacred, we respect the many resources and environmental stresses they incur.
Materials
Deadstock silk crepe de chine and silk chiffon, twigs, rose quartz and citrine stones, natural dyes, silk thread, hook and eye, hemp twine, metal skirt hook.
About the Artist
Andrea Diodati is an award winning fashion designer, assistant professor and Reiki Master. Presently, Diodati is exploring the relationship between spirituality, fashion and sustainability.
Follow the artist on Instagram: @andrea_diodati
Design Concept
My look, Nature’s Villa, is inspired by the beauty surrounding us on earth. It captures the essence of the outdoors, its neutral tones and lightweight fabrics add to its earthy feel. Along with a few pops of color, inspired by foliage. Nature truly is our very own villa, in and of itself. My design utilizes and works with nature, instead of against it.
In this day and age, the fashion industry contributes a large amount of pollution and detrimental harm to our earth, adding to the current climate change issues. It’s our job as fashion designers, and humans on this earth, to do everything we can to try and heal our earth. Implementing sustainability into my fashion designs has become very important to me as I have continued to learn about the harms of fast fashion and what I can do to prevent this in my own designs.
I have chosen to use nature as my inspiration. I truly get the most inspired outdoors. I designed a blouse using 100% organic Egyptian cotton shirting. This is an eco-friendly fabric, certified by the BCI. It is also an OEKO-TEX certified fabric, made from raw materials, minimizing harm for the environment and human health. This lightweight material is perfect for summer weather. The halter top neckline has an adjustable tie and it is perfect for long-term use. Most people tend to change sizes in the bust line throughout their lifetime. The adjustable tie allows room for growth, or if needed, the opposite. In addition it is perfect for any mother who is breastfeeding. I will use a 100% sustainable zipper, made of organic cotton and recycled brass. I designed a two-toned 100% organic cotton twill pant. It is eco-friendly and sustainable because of its dyeing and finishing process. It is an OEKO-TEX certified fabric as well. This durable fabric is perfect for longevity. I added latticework novelty netting to the inseam of the pant, to add a unique touch to an every-day twill pant. This can be dressed up with heels, or dressed down for an afternoon in the park. I will use organic elastic that is biodegradable for the waistline, with an adjustable tie-belt. This allows for comfort and room for adjusting the size, as our bodies naturally change throughout our lifetime. Not only can one look chic and feel sexy in this new outfit, but they would be implementing sustainability.
Utilizing manufacturing processes that decrease our carbon footprint, using recycled materials and processes that use less water, can all contribute to a greener lifestyle. We have to be more cautious of the impact we have on this earth. This is why I chose materials that embody this mindset and put it into action. As a designer not only should we be thinking about functionality and appearance of our designs, but we should be ethically aware. Many textile processes are inhumane for animals, the environment and humans. I designed this look with functionality, style, comfort and most importantly, sustainability in mind.
Materials
100% Organic cotton twill, 100% Egyptian cotton, Latticework Novelty Net, organic biodegradable elastic, organic cotton & recycled brass zipper (100% sustainable)
About the Artist
My name is Lindsay Jacobs. I am from the bay area. I had been homeschooling for 7 years and I just finished a semester of dual enrollment at SBCC. I have taken nine precollege classes through the Fashion Institute of Technology and fell in love with the professors and community. I will be applying to FIT in New York City, for fashion design this coming fall. I love to be creative and express myself in my art. I have been sewing since I was 11 and sketching, painting, making jewelry, baking/cooking for as long as I can remember!
Follow the artist on Instagram: @lindsay__jacobs
Design Concept
Fabric Alchemy: Mother Nature-Found on Earth. Through the use of Fabric Alchemy, a pile of old, discarded cotton t shirts selected from Goodwill can be transformed into an up cycled, wearable work of art with the ability to heal, all thanks to nature and the resourcefulness of restoration. The idea is to educate, inspire, and heal. Given the fact that naturally occurring fabrics like linen, wool, and cotton carry a higher vibrational frequency than that of man-made materials such as polyester, discarded cotton t shirts are selected from goodwill to make the old new again, and mimic the earth in it’s ability to recycle, reuse, and be born again over and over as a means for continued evolution. The shirts are intentionally cut up and reduced to their natural form, to then be transformed into a new form-a stretch of fabric(fabric alchemy). Scraps are pieced or puzzled together, and from this fabric, a new silhouette is formed.It emerges, more purposeful, more beautiful, and as a testament to the resilience of nature.
Materials
Recycled/discarded cotton t shirts, scissors, pins, sewing machine.
About the Artist
Mahdiyyah is a self-taught Fabric Alchemist, Designer, and all around creative with a skill for transforming old, discarded clothing into completely new forms and one of a kind garments made only once. Her prior research about the healing properties that certain fabrics possess, drive her to create intentionally crafted clothing for the wearer.
Follow the artist on Instagram: @Mahdiyyahofficial
Who We Are
Contest Organizers
VenturaVie/V Boutique was created in 2017 to eleVate community through fashion, art and nature. VenturaVie directly benefits those in need through financial support, live and virtual engagement events, mentoring programs, and creating safe welcoming spaces. V Boutique, our brick-and-mortar shop in San Francisco’s Cannery, gives all profits away and offers ongoing internship opportunities and community events. VenturaVie grounds all programs in wellness and self-empowerment, creating a network of support.
Salt Tree Art creates rich community spaces that unite arts and ecology in unexpected, educational, and inspiring ways.
We explore creative processes that integrate natural and social systems, revitalizing the links between community, ecology, and the arts. We accomplish this through development of environmental artworks, production of public performances and events that showcase environmental art, and community education and advocacy on ecological issues.
Our organization is for everyone, whether your passions support the arts, agriculture, food security, education, environmentalism, or community development. Our programs use the arts to foster interdisciplinary connections and to build innovative approaches to ecological issues.
Program Host
Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht specializes in the creation of unique floral arrangements that celebrate enchanting flowers and natural beauty. He is the owner and creative director of Wild Bloom by Kristen Griffith-VanderYacht. His career began in New York City where he worked for some of the top designers in the industry. Since opening his own studio, his flowers have been in major publications across the US, including Martha Stewart Weddings, Traditional Home Magazine, and The Knot, and seen on Good Morning America and E! Network. His flowers for actress Julianne Hough were featured on the front cover of People Magazine.
Kristen has been named one of the world’s top florists by Harper’s Bazaar, and he previously served as the head judge for the Big Flower Fight on Netflix.Our Judging Panel
Bridgett Artise is the owner, author and designer of Born Again Vintage and has pioneered upcycled fashion into the fashion world since the early 2000s. She is the founder of Sustainable Fashion Week US, created to raise awareness for environmental and social change in the fashion industry, while providing a platform to emerging sustainable designers. She is also responsible for creating one of FIT’s first sustainability classes and has been dubbed a vintage fashion expert by the New York Times.
Lauren Baker has been surrounded by the fashion industry for her entire life. She even started working as a photo shoot assistant at the age of 10! She is part of the renowned design house, Walter Baker, and when she isn’t in the showroom, she supports the performing arts as a member of the Board of Directors for South Shore Theatricals.
Vladimir M Colón has worked in the fashion industry for over ten years as a patternmaker, technical designer, and product developer. He holds degrees in Menswear Design and in International Trade and Marketing for the Fashion Industries, as well as a certificate in patternmaking for womenswear from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Throughout his career, he has worked with several New York City-based brands taking on sustainable initiatives and practices.
Inquiries
Please contact us for media or partnership inquiries, or for more information about the program or its organizers. For more information about our 2021 season, please visit our showcase archive page.
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