A shortlist of six emerging designers from Asia was made from hundreds of candidates to compete for the final Yoox Estethica Sustainability awards that were announced in November.
The winners were Kain Picken and Fiona Lau, founders of the Hong Kong-based FFIXXED Studio.
The other nominees were: Su, who started her eponymous brand, Renli Su, in London in 2013; Thuy Duong Nguyen, who is behind Vietnamese brand Thu Thu; Ken Samudio from the Philippines; South Korean brand ReCode; and Japanese designer Suzuki Takayuki.
Despite their different styles and backgrounds, all six candidates showed commitment to "ethical" designing and production processes-from the use of materials like natural fabrics that are not petroleum-based or treated with chemicals for softening and coloring to workplace conditions such as not using child labor, according to the awards committee.
In Su's case, her promotion and persistent use of organic fabrics and traditional handicrafts set a fine Chinese example of ethical fashion, according to the panel of judges.
"We are not asking people not to buy, but to buy better," says De Castro.
Other than De Castro, the panel included Luca Martines, president of Yoox.com, and Susanna Lau, commonly known as Susie Bubble, who, with 238,000 followers on Instagram, is among the world's leading fashion bloggers.
The winning duo will be offered both business support and international mentorship, aside from the prize's monetary component. The works of all six designers created exclusively for the awards, will be put for sale on Yoox's website for a limited time.
"It's all about building awareness, from designers and retailers to consumers. As a consumer, essentially, you cannot ignore how what you wear is made," Lau says.
"It (eco-friendly fashion) is still at an infant stage. In retrospect, the industry, since evolving from the age of haute couture to the widely accessible ready-to-wear, hasn't had any big revolutions in the past few decades. It might be a force to push fashion forward," says the fashion guru with a signature top-knot hairstyle.
But De Castro, who is credited with raising the profile of eco-friendly design in the United Kingdom, says style is being married to sustainability both in Europe and Asia.
"One of the challenges for eco-fashion is that it has to be more fashionable than fashion, so that people are going to love it even more-not only because it causes little trouble to the world but is actually beautiful," she says.
