Award for Startups in the Sustainable Fashion Industry

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched the Kering Generations Award as a result of a recent collaboration between the Saudi Fashion Commission and the French organisation “Kering.”

By finding talent among Kingdom business entrepreneurs who concentrate in this area, the prize will be granted to startups in the sustainable fashion sector.

Sustainability as a Core Value

The award’s primary objective, according to those in charge of it, is to recognise businesses that use innovation as a fundamental strategy in their operations and provide them with the assistance they need to advance in the sustainable fashion manufacturing industry and achieve the success they seek.

All businesses with headquarters in the Kingdom are eligible to apply for the prize and participate in the competition once the application period opens.

In December 2024, the final evaluation session, which will take place in Riyadh in January 2025, will open to twenty selected firms.

As an award for up-and-coming businesses in the sustainable fashion industry, the assessment criteria in the final session are based on three primary components: lowering water usage, measuring the degree of adoption of the circular economy, and consumer interaction.

The Saudi Fashion Commission and the Kering Group, the Saudi and French parties’ official representatives, signed a memorandum of understanding before the award’s debut. The parties viewed this agreement as a strategic collaboration to achieve their common goals.

Besides, the two sides’ collaboration will probably keep going within the context of several projects and conversations aimed at achieving the Kingdom’s fashion industry’s objectives, chief among them being sustainability.

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Emerging Companies Are the Focus

The CEO of the Saudi Fashion Commission, Mr. Burak Cakmak, has emphasised the value of sustainability and its adoption as a key tenet in developing the Commission’s vision to influence the Kingdom’s fashion industry in the future. Cakmak also commended the collaboration with Kering to accomplish this objective.

In an announcement to the media, he also said that the “Kering Generation Prize” aims to identify up-and-coming businesses in the sustainable fashion industry and to recognise them as the creative leaders of initiatives in the area of circular fashion production—that is, recycled and eco-friendly—as well as those that are concerned about environmental safety.

Ms. “Marie Claire Deveau,” the Head of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs at the Kering Group, highlighted in her statement to the media that the award should be given to emerging companies. This is to support the future of fashion and clothing in Saudi Arabia and around the world.

Moreover, she suggested that emerging businesses will get the prize to support nascent business owners and assist them in finding a simple and safe route.

In the same vein, she pointed out the importance of working with up-and-coming talent to broaden the award’s reach and beneficiaries and turn it into a genuine tool for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s fashion industry, which the Fashion Commission will regulate.

Nevertheless, presenting the award at this time demonstrates the Authority’s and the Saudi Ministry of Culture’s dedication to talking about the challenges faced by workers in the industry and trying to come up with sensible solutions for them. This will help Saudi fashion and style in the sustainability sector in the future.

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Fostering Creativity in Sustainable Fashion

The way that we currently support emerging business owners is by building strong relationships with them, sponsoring them, fostering their creativity, and giving them all the tools they need to put their creative ideas into practice and help them get past any obstacles they may encounter to create fashion lines that promote recycling and environmental responsibility, which the Saudi Fashion Authority and the Kering Group came together to give an award for Saudi Arabia’s up-and-coming businesses with the primary objective of promoting the industry’s future evolution.

It is important to highlight that the ongoing collaboration and efforts to assist new businesses and foster innovation in the sustainable fashion sector will do just that.

This is in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which aims to improve the standard of living for Saudi citizens and diversify the country’s revenue and economic sources. Plus, supporting sustainability in the fashion industry is also in line with the Kingdom’s broader trend of promoting sustainability across a range of industries.

This trend highlights the significance of building a more sustainable and inclusive future with the Saudi “X” generation, which was born between the early 1960s and the early 1980s and owns businesses that are still in the early stages of development.

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