2025 Circular Design Award Finalists revealed!
Fashion has long been measured in seasons; waste, in tonnes. In New Zealand alone, more than 52,000 tonnes of clothing are landfilled each year - 143 tonnes a day. Against that backdrop, the 2025 Circular Design Awards signal a different way forward.
Today, Fashion & Textiles New Zealand announces the 2025 finalists: three businesses and ten designers who refuse the logic of throwaway fashion and instead build garments, systems, and accessories that circle back - to soil, to community, to story.
Two categories frame the awards. The Circular Business Innovation Award, sponsored by Untouched World, recognises enterprises reengineering their models around waste-free systems. The Design Innovation Award celebrates creative practice, split between Clothing and Accessory categories. Together, they mark a moment for an industry intent on reshaping itself.
Judge Lucianne Tonti says "Now more than ever we need to be embracing smart innovation and redefining circularity so it is no longer a buzz word that allows business-as-usual to continue. This year's entries provided hope for this kind of future, with an emphasis on reduced, mindful consumption, innovative applications for waste and true community engagement."
Lucianne Tonti, Journalist and Author
Business Innovation Award (sponsored by Untouched World)
This award honours businesses that have rewired their models around circular systems - keeping resources in circulation, paying fairer returns to growers, and proving waste is not inevitable.
- Emroce: Emroce has pioneered a proven zero-waste fashion system, eliminating fabric waste for over eight years by repurposing every scrap, saving 367m² of material, and scaling its impact through workshops, internships, and partnerships that demonstrate the commercial viability of circular fashion.
- LOF: LOF transforms undervalued strong wool into regenerative, high-performance products through a fully localised zero-waste supply chain, with designs made for disassembly, reuse, or composting—proving circular design can be desirable, scalable, and commercially viable.
- ReCreate: ReCreate is a values-driven circular fashion brand that combines timeless design and natural fibres with ethical production in Cambodia, community empowerment, and a customer programme that extends garment lifecycles through resale, repair, and recycling.
Images below (L-R):
1. Emroce 2. Lof 3. ReCreate
Design Innovation Award
The award recognises creativity at the raw edge of fashion - where waste is reimagined, and form is stitched from the overlooked. Split into Clothing and Accessory categories, this award honours designers who show that circularity is not constraint but possibility: garments and objects that are inventive, functional, and made to endure.
Clothing Innovation Award Finalists
- Cheremene Castle | Reclaiming Waste
Māori designer Chermene Castle turns discarded textiles and waste into avant-garde, culturally rich garments and accessories, fusing upcycling with storytelling to embody circularity and care for the whenua. - Galina Karmann | Tropical Cocktail
Galina Karmann’s “Tropical Cocktails” dress and accessories give old garments and textile offcuts a vibrant second life, celebrating creativity and circularity. - Louise Sly | High Vis to Rainwear
Louise Sly reimagines damaged high-vis jackets into stylish, functional rainwear, tapping into scalable waste streams to create a closed-loop circular system. - Kensa Munroe – Deconstructed Heritage
Kensa Munroe fuses botanical dyes, reclaimed textiles, and zero-waste techniques to create plant-based, artisanal garments that honour heritage and place while offering a circular alternative to global fashion’s excess. - Josh Bognar | Collaged Menswear
Josh Bognor reimagines menswear by appliquéing discarded post-industrial garment scraps into oversized T-shirts and jeans, turning fast fashion waste into textured, story-rich silhouettes. - Mima Lewis Gourdie | Circular Blueprint
Mima Lewis Gourdie’s cyanotyped ensemble and SCOBY handbag turn educational waste and biomaterials into fashion that is both commercially viable and circular. - Pip Stevenson | Ewe Turn
Pip Stevenson’s Ewe Turn transforms waste wool swatches, surplus fibre, and salvaged trims into a compostable puffer jacket, reimagining everyday outerwear as a fully circular, regenerative garment.
Images below (L-R):
1. Pip Stevenson | Ewe Turn. 2. Josh Bognar | Collaged Menswear.
Image credits:
Photographer - Matt Hurley. Stylist - Dan Ahwa. Hair + Make-up - Kiekie Stanners. Talent - Charlee @ Unique, Harper Curlew @ Red 11. Location - Webbs Auction House
Circular Accessory Innovation Award
- Carrie Andrews | Multiple Value Chain
Carrie Andrews’ Multiple Value Chain transforms farm by-products into innovative leather and biocomposite accessories, closing the loop from land to fashion with regenerative design. - Deonne Schollum & Maryna Lottering | Comfort on the Go
Deonne Schollum and Maryna Lottering’s school backpack with detachable comfort bear turns discarded commercial textiles into a functional, child-centred design that supports both wellbeing and circularity. - Xenia Sidorenko | Denim Fur Gloves
Xenia Sidorenko’s denim “fur” gloves reimagine waste jeans and hoodies as cruelty-free, recyclable accessories, combining bold design with circular innovation.
Winners Announced Soon
Join us at the Circular Design Award Gala, Tuesday 7th October, where the winners will be announced and the finalists will be on display. Tickets are available now.