China, a treasure of the eastern civilization, and Italy, a gem of the western civilization, enjoy a long-standing friendship. To honor the China-Italy Year of Culture and Tourism that kicks off in 2022, the“China-Italy Youth Future Fashion Design Competition”, jointly sponsored by Tsinghua University, Politecnico di Milano and Keqiao District People’s Government of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province will be launched in a fresh manner. This Competition is an activity echoing the spirit of President Xi Jinping’s speech during his visit to Tsinghua University on April 19, 2021, and a platform that enhances exchanges and cooperation in creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship between the youth of the two countries, with the purpose of encouraging the fusion of art and technology. During the Competition, we will pool the mind of young people around the globe to make innovative designs, explore cutting-edge fashion trends, and lead future fashion ideas.With beauty as the medium, the competition will become an international fashion innovation platform, injecting new vitality into global sustainable development under concerted efforts.

I. 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 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 cutting-edge design talents with creativity and vitality. It will also explore the future of global fashion design 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 aspirations for a better life, and consolidate the sustainable development of the global design.

II. Goals

(i) Increase the popularity of the Competition

It is necessary to improve the procedures, rules, and regulations of the Competition in a science-based way, make the Competition widely known, facilitate extensive participation, and build a good reputation among the Chinese and the Italian, and even people from all over the world.

(ii) Build An Innovation Network for Fashion Design

It is necessary to build an international communication platform for fashion design, fill the gap between talent supply and industrial demand, form a dual-circulation development pattern featuring university-government-enterprise resources and international-domestic resources, and build a cooperation network for innovative designs where “artistic expression is combined with technological design methods, art is integrated into humanities, and academic research and practical use are equally emphasized."

(iii) Commercialize Fashion Design Achievements

It is imperative to work closely with brand enterprises to commercialize outstanding entries by attracting investment, identifying market opportunities, and working in teams. Meanwhile, we shall empower the industry through the integration of talents, projects, and content.

III. Organizations and Working Mechanism

(i) Organizations

1. Hosted by: Tsinghua University, Politecnico di Milano, and Keqiao District People’s Government of Shaoxing

2. Organized by: China-Italy Design Innovation Hub of Tsinghua University, POLIHUB of Politecnico di Milano, and Construction Management Committee of China Texile City

3. Several supporting units

4. Several media units

(ii) Working Mechanism

The organization of this competition consists of the leading group, the organizing committee, the evaluation committee, the expert committee, the enterprise committee, and the secretariat. The Competition is carried out in accordance with the Organizing Constitution for China-Italy Youth Future Fashion Design Competition.

IV. Theme and Orientation

1. Theme: Sustainable Fashion

2. Slogan: A bright future of low-carbon fashion!

3. Orientation:

Integrate high-quality government-enterprise-university-research resources;

Gather talented designers with influence and creativity;

Build an international platform for design exchanges;

Promote the application of innovative designs; and

Lead the trend of fashion design.

V. Participants

The Competition warmly welcomes innovative young art practitioners (under 45 years old) from China, Italy, and the rest of theworld, including but not limited to artists, designers, college students and faculty members majoring in design, and employees of studios and companies.

VI. Theme Interpretation

The Competition is themed on “Sustainable Fashion”. We believe that designing should contribute to the protection of the environment. The Competition encourages realizing sustainability through the design of textile, clothing and accessories. In the process of creating new materials and recycling them, exploring new design methods, creating the concept of sustainable design and improving its system, we constantly shape and reshape the philosophy of design consumption, contribute to the harmonious development of man and nature, carry forward and expand the essence of fashion and create new conditions for sustainable design to grow.

Under the theme of “Sustainable Fashion," the Competition has three categories: textile’s printing design, fashion design, and accessories design.

1.Textile’s Printing Design

It focuses on new designs for textile printing patterns, including but not limited to for clothing and home use.

2. Fashion Design

It focuses on creative daily fashion designs with equal emphasis on artistry and function.

3. Accessories Design

It focuses on designs for accessories that are both fashionable and practical, including but not limited to shoes, hats, bags, and jewelry.

VII. Requirements

1. The entry should reflect the theme of the Competition.

2. The entry can be designed and submitted as a series, with up to five pieces of work.

3. The entry submitted should be the original work of the designer with complete intellectual property rights, and has not been officially published. In case of copyright disputes such as plagiarism and misappropriation, the entry will be disqualified from the Competition. The copyright disputes and legal issues arising therefrom will be borne by the participants.

4. Chinese and English are the working languages of the Competition.

5. All submitted copies, photos, videos, etc., will not be returned. Participants should keep a copy of their works. Participants enjoy full ownership of their intellectual property rights. The organizing committee has the right to publish the entries (including drafts and final pieces), for purposes including publicity, exhibition, performance, publication, distribution, etc.

6. All expenses required will be raised by the participants themselves.

7. A complete entry includes:

Materials required for registration and preliminary round:

1) Letter of Undertaking: Team members should sign it in the order of authors, scan and upload the signed document;

2) Design drawings should be within 5 pages in A3 size (portrait layout), 300dpi of the resolution, within 10MB, and in the format of PNG, JPG or JPEG. It should include the title, effect drawing and description, and elaborates the entry on the theme, conception, structural drawing, effect drawing, physical photos, and technology. All texts should be in Chinese or English without any indications of the author’s name or marks or any participating enterprise's name, otherwise the entry will be considered invalid.

3) PDF file of the entry: Theprinted paper material is essential for offline review and should include the complete entry number in the top left corner of each page. This file should contain all relevant contents of the entry, such as the cover, the design work, and the concept description. No personal information should be included.

4) Video (if any) should be within 3 minutes in MP4 (H264 coding) format, of self-determined aspect ratio and within 100MB. Subtitles are acceptable, but no personal information in any form should be included.

Please prepare the following materials for submission for the semi-final:

1) Exhibition Agreement;

2) Material object or model of the entry; and

3) VI file of the entry (for exhibition).

Please prepare the following materials for submission for the final:

1) Material object or model of the entry; and

2) Whether participants should be present in the final at Tsinghua University depends on the COVID-19 situation.

VIII. How to participate:

Entries should be submitted on the official website of the Competition.

Official website:http://ciyff.cidih.tsinghua.edu.cn

All templates are available on the official website. Under special circumstances (poor network access or other special reasons), please contact us via email or telephone.

Email: cidih@tsinghua.edu.cn

Tel: 010-62780560, 010-62780583

IX. Schedule

1.Stating time: April 2022.The announcement of the organizing committee shall prevail.

2.Entry Collection: April to July

Participants may register on the official website of the Competition (Underspecial circumstances like poor network access or other special reasons,please contact us through email or telephone) between April and July 2022. Participants can sign up as individuals or teams (with up to five members).

3.Preliminary Evaluation: August

The organizing committee will organize the preliminary evaluation, in which 100 entrieswill be selected for thesemi-final. The results will be announced on the official website.Entries that go into the semi-final will be exhibited.

4.Semi-final Evaluation: September 2022

A total of 30 entries will be selected, which will be announced on the official website.

5. Final and the awarding ceremony are scheduled to be held in September or October 2022 depending onthe pandemic situation.

6. The exhibition of outstanding works will be held in Keqiao District, Shaoxing after the final.

X. Awards

1. Grand Prize of China Textile City Cup (3 items)

Textile’s Printing Design x 1 (RMB 120,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources)

Fashion Design x 1 (RMB 120,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources)

Accessories Design x 1 (RMB 120,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources)

2. Award for the Most Creative Design (Award for Judges’ Special Recommendation) x 3, (RMB 20,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources);

3. Award for the Most Commercially Valuable Design x 12 (RMB 10,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources);

4. Award for Innovative Designer x 12 (RMB 10,000 [pre-tax] with packaged innovation and entrepreneurship resources);

5. Award for Companies with Creative Talents Contribution and Award for Outstanding Tutor;

6. The prizes, certificates, and trophies will be awarded by the organizing committee respectively;

7. The awarded works will be qualified for the special exhibition to be held by the China-Italy Design Innovation Hub during Milan Design Week.

Organizing Committee of

China-Italy Youth Future Fashion Design Competition

April 21, 2022