DiversityNOW! 2016

Congratulations to each and everyone of our Shortlist Entrants.

After a tumultuous year for diversity in fashion, our initiative DiversityNOW launched in 2012 to inspire a new generation of fashion creators, has now hit it’s peak with a renewed global outreach - including entries from America, Budapest and Taiwan to name a few - and more entries than ever before.

In collaboration with Arts Thread and i-D, having moved from strength to strength throughout the years, we have forged new ideas within the fiery furness of student rebellion.

Our shortlisted students below show the tenacity, dedication and veracious attitude of the present to change the future.

All Walks Director and Founder Debra Bourne, states, “Fashion has always had the power to reflect, prompt and catalyse social change. We are an industry that produces experts in visual literacy. With the force of image-led culture, perhaps our biggest opportunity to pioneer new approaches in Diversity is NOW.”

DiversityNOW! 2016 presents a vast array of diversity in all manner of creative disciplines including; photography; journalism; graphic design; illustration; fashion film and garment design

The visual richness of the following entries alone show the value of diversity in fashion and the opportunities it opens for creativity. With a broader outlook, our entrants were able to capture a range of body shapes, genders, abilities, ethnicities and ages reflecting subculture and popular culture alike as fashion is supposed to.

From here…

Our 15 finalists will be featured on i-D online from tomorrow. Voting closes on June 3rd.

This is not the end, it’s just the beginning.

Continue the discussion and support diversity and challenge the homogeneity in fashion by sharing the links and following All Walks on social media. @allwallkscatwalk on Instagram or Twitter.

AND THE 2016 WINNERS ARE…

SHORTLIST

Photography & Styling

Illustration

Garment Design

Graphic Design

Journalism

Fashion Film

ARTS THREAD is proud to be partner with All Walks Beyond the Catwalk and i-D for Diversity NOW! 2016. For this 4th edition, the categories are Garment Design / Illustration* / Graphic Design/Poster / Fashion Film* / Journalism / Photography*.

March 21 2016 is the final deadline for entries for All Walks 2016 campaign to be uploaded onto ARTS THREAD - this edition it’s the top 3 entries per course/program.

See the work of last year’s finalists on ARTS THREAD and on our Pinterest Diversity Now! boardand see all the winners on ARTS THREAD.

Last year’s finalists and winners at Graduate Fashion Week 2014. Awards presented by Susie Lau of Style Bubble. Photograph Annabel Staff

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Who can Enter

Entry to Diversity NOW! is open to any student in full time or part-time education on any fashion, graphic design, photography, journalism and illustration course. *Please note students can collaborate to create one entry.

How to Enter

STEP A

Already got an ARTS THREAD portfolio? To enter, simply log into your account, upload your design as a new project, return to this page and select your project into the Competition box above.

New to ARTS THREAD? To enter, register to create an ARTS THREAD account and go to your email and click on the activation link sent to your email Inbox. Then log into your account, upload your project, then return to this page and select your project into the Competition box above.

STEP B

Confirm your entry by completing our Diversity NOW! Entry Form - here you will be able to add the names of any team members involved in your entry, as well as completing our Diversity NOW! questionnaire.

Entry: Free

Deadline: March 21 2016 MIDNIGHT GMT

Recognition: Winning category entries will be considered for a Diversity NOW! 2016 Campaign and showcased on allwalks.org and artsthread.com. All entries will be showcased on a special page on artsthread.com.

All Walks will highlight chosen students who best portray the excitement of diversity. The fifteen finalists will be entered into a public vote via i-D online with a single student becoming the Diversity NOW People’s Choice for 2016. A single student will be announced as The All Walks Choice for 2016.

THE BRIEF

Link to the complete Diversity NOW! brief

Diversity: A Vital Issue WhyNOW? WhyYOU?

NOW is the time for CREATIVES to harness their power and lead the way, by boldly visioning an expanded fashion future which steps beyond stereotypes, redefines boundaries and celebrates a wider range of beauty and body ideals in age, size, gender, race and physical ability.

A fashion future that empowers and emboldens the viewer and the wearer, envisioning impactful, emotionally considerate, commercially relevant practice in all areas of the industry. Contribute to the narrative of your generation. One where crowd funding and social media platforms are encouraging the voice of a new generation to create a fresh global perspective despite times of increasing corporatisation.

Help us build a library of fashion design, imagery and communication that celebrates difference of skin tone, age, size and body type, to encourage debate about the power of fashion on our lives and ultimately, on our well being.

The All Walks Diversity NOW lecture

It is a 40 minute audio PowerPoint with approx. 130 slides, which asks some stimulating questions of young creatives.

This lecture asks future creatives to consider the impact of their work on the self-esteem of today’s audience. With its subtext around unachievable body-ideals and over sexualised femininity, as well as Eurocentric thinking and lack of racial awareness, could fashion deliver a more emotionally enlightened message?

Fashion is an amazing medium and vehicle for creatives who currently work within a dynamic that appropriates inherent desire to dress up and celebrate who we are, selling it back to us on a seasonal basis with unspoken rules.

Before we become fashion practitioners we are consumers absorbing aspirational ideals about the body that normalises the unachievable and is facilitated by the proliferation of digital fashion messaging. Has this warped our view before we start.

How we access our own voice and instinctive artistic source

As conscious fashion practitioners at the beginning of our practice can we ask ourselves?

Do we think the current proliferation of fashion imagery in service to unachievable body ideals is in any way to the detriment of the self-esteem of contemporary men and women?
Have we been exposed to a destabilising influence without realising.
If we name it does it effect how we approach our practice?
Beyond the Catwalk means looking at the END USER to improve our business offer. She is not an immovable bust stand or a professional model. Where does acknowledgement of the customer fit into our vision?
Could we also look at the power of fashion to communicate and broadcast a range of body and beauty ideals and influence self-esteem in a positive way?
Should fashion creatives be accountable for the messaging we create and promote?
What constitutes objectification?
What have some of the All Walks Beyond the Catwalk initiatives which promote an aspirational and realistic range of bodies achieved so far?
Why Dr. Ben Barry’s research is crucial.

As we are a tiny charity organisation that delivers this project by the dedication of unwaged volunteers we are asking, colleges to contribute a small £50 usage fee for the use of our Lecture Film as an educational Tutor Aid.

Please contact Olga : [email protected] for request and bank details.
Credit: Thanks to Caryn for her production of this 2015 version of the All Walks lecture film.