The Responsible Fashion Movement launched their second Hackathon last month, under the theme ‘THE MAKING OF THE GREEN GENE” in association with the Hirdaramani Group. The aim of this hackathaon is to hack the process and create a solution around denim-based products. This is part of the Responsible Fashion Movement.

The Responsible Fashion Movement has a global agenda to impose progressive thinking, where mindsets are changed, ethical practices implemented and fashion consumers are made aware of their choices. It is an action point to bring about Responsibility, Responsiveness and Accountabilityto the fashion and design industryto create a good and responsible fashion ethos, which should become the 'new norm' in fashion design. As before, the objective behind the Fashion Hackathon is to involve design students, designers and industry stakeholders to bring in functionality and practicality based on the knowledge imparted in the forums that preceded it.

Responsible Fashion Hackathons started late last year with the first project named as The making of the Green Tee, part 1. This involved design students from a universities and fashion schools attempting to create the greenest t0-shirt possible based on the technology available. The results of this were presented to a panel of international designers at the First Responsible Fashion Summit. 

The second edition, The Making of the Green Gene, will see its participants attempt to create a pair of Jeans or a product that uses denim using waste fabric from the Hirdaramani manufacturing plant. Participants will use waste fabric from 4 categorized waste baskets, in order to create a product that will have the strongest environmental impact.  

“These hackathons are aimed at creating a culture of innovative design solutions among design students and how amazing would it be to see a generation of green thinking designers in Sri Lanka who have solutions to global garment issues. Not many people know that a teeshirt as basic as it maybe can consume upto 2000 litres of water, equivalent to an individual’s annual water need. These are issues. And We want Sri Lanka to be a shining example of Responsible Fashion.” Says Ajai V Singh, Founder of The Responsible Fashion Movement 

The Hirdaramani Group is one of the leading apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka. In response to addressing the growing concerns of fashion and its environmental impact, they conducted an in-depth study into the impact of denim on the environment, mapping it from the cotton farming stage to the retail and post-consumer stage.

"Responsible Fashion Hackathon is a unique program by the Responsible Fashion Movement, it is focused on creating solutions to global issues while engaging and involving  young people. For Hirdaramani group Denim is a key product category and we encourage innovation and design solutions. We are happy to partner the Responsible fashion Movement which aims to showcase Sri Lanka as a Responsible Fashion destination. This is probably the first such denim hackathon in Asia. We look forward to more,” says AroonHirdaramani, Director Hirdaramani Group.

The key participants of this year’s hackathon will comprise of 7 teams of students from the National Institute of Business Management (NIBM), University of Moratuwa and Raffles Design Institute Colombo. The teams are comprised of young Sri Lankan designers aiming to create solutions in the form of creating jeans from waste fabric from the Hirdaramani manufacturing plant. The jeans created will be evaluated and one team will be declared a winner of this hackathon. The winner will be adjudged based on their creations conformity to the 6 impact points, namely Design, Fabric, Production, Logistics, Retail and Dispose. The winner will then go on to present their jeans at the Responsible Fashion Summit set to take place next month at Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo. The student will receive the opportunity to have their design manufactured, marketed and retailed globally.

For more information on the Responsible Fashion Movement and the Responsible Fashion Summit, follow @responsiblefashionmovement on Facebook and Instagram.