Hugo Boss Innovating Impact Design Competition

March 13, 2017, New York, NY – Hugo Boss today announced the four winners of the “Innovating Impact Design” competition, which is part of a four-week workshop on sustainable fashion design and innovation in collaboration with the renowned Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York. To promote the exchange between the different disciplines, the project was opened to students of various disciplines within the school. The winners are Sam Lim, Somin Seong, Sophie Lemieux, and Zoe Sun.

“We want to foster a passion for fashion, innovation and sustainability among the new generation of talents, and with Parsons, we have an outstanding partner at our side,” said Ingo Wilts, Chief Brand Officer at HUGO BOSS AG.

In addition to a stipend of $5,000 each, the four winners will have the opportunity to extend their work experience with the global fashion Group, enabling them to gain further insights into the strategic and practical implementation of innovation and sustainability at the company. All in all, nearly 50 students from the BFA Fashion and BBA Design Management programs took part in the workshop.

The competition focused on the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experiences between HUGO BOSS and the students in order to create a platform for developing groundbreaking design solutions and products. In particular, it set out to spark new approaches and ways of thinking. The three phases of the workshop covered areas such as idea generation, complex material analyses, initial prototype development, and potential market access strategies. The goal is to further boost innovation and sustainability as product qualities at HUGO BOSS, while simultaneously attracting gifted young talents with unconventional ideas to the company.

“We were delighted to work with Hugo Boss on creating a unique opportunity for our highly diverse and interdisciplinary student body through the “Innovating Impact Competition” which explored contemporary design systems challenging the global conversations surrounding fashion, lifecycle, and sustainability,” said Burak Cakmak, Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design. “Projects included members from the BFA Fashion and BBA Design Management programs. The interdisciplinary, collaborative work that was created with this project would not be possible without our generous partner, Hugo Boss.”

The workshop is a feature of HUGO BOSS’ partnership with Parsons, which began in 2014. Since then the Group has been awarding the HUGO BOSS Fashion Collection Prize, a wide-ranging program of bursaries for junior and senior students enrolled in the school’s BFA Fashion Design program.