In the Victorian city of Geelong, the National Wool Museum has unveiled We the Makers Sustainable Fashion Prize 2025, an exhibition that promises to push the boundaries of fashion as we know it. Supported by Principal Partner GH Commercial, the program brings together 20 emerging fashion designers, tasking them with a mission to reimagine and revive textile waste with traditional techniques. With $10,000 and a permanent place in the museum’s exhibition on offer to the winning designer, We the Makers is an opportunity to unearth the next big name in fashion and create a future founded on creativity, ethics, and environmental innovation.

We the Makers Sustainable Fashion Prize 2025

Once known as the Wool Centre of the World, Geelong is the homebase for the We the Makers program, with their rich history of excellence in material production and manufacturing inspiring the next generation of industry talent. This year, over 150 entrants from 13 countries submitted to take part in the exhibition, with the 20 chosen representing the creme de la creme of an emerging global network. For the exhibition, each of these 20 designers has created a garment that breaks boundaries; showcasing creativity and innovation in production techniques, material selection, form, and design.

Opening on June 14th, the exhibition has already welcomed many through its doors, with locals and visitors alike eager to be front and centre to the future of fashion. Framed within the museum and more broadly its base in Geelong, the exhibition is able to create a wider dialogue around sustainability and design, and how some of our oldest materials can be imagined into the silhouettes of the future. Visitors also have a chance to take part in the exhibition, voting for their favourite outfit in the UNESCO City of Design People’s Choice Award.

“The City of Greater Geelong is committed to supporting emerging fashion designers embracing innovative and sustainable practices in the textile industry,” says Geelong Deputy Mayor Ron Nelson. “Our city has a legacy in manufacturing and being on the cutting edge of technology and this prize speaks to local research into sustainable fibres and future practices that will help revolutionise the global fashion industry. As a UNESCO City of Design, this is a major program that is embraced by our network of Cities from around the world.”

Custom Flooring for a Purposeful Space

Also hailing from Geelong, GH Commercial – the commercial arm of Godfrey Hirst – shares the same core values of the exhibition, as they draw on 160 years of manufacturing knowledge to pioneer the future of commercial floor coverings. With a longstanding commitment to supporting their hometown, GH Commercial are the Principal Partner of the National Wool Museum, with their collaboration founded on celebrating emerging designers, the textile industry and sustainability at large.

“We believe thoughtful design should be embedded in every layer of a space. Partnering with the National Wool Museum allows us to celebrate young creatives and champion purposeful design,” says Joel Williamson, National Sales Manager at Godfrey Hirst.

To support We the Makers, GH Commercial has provided custom Designer Jet® carpet for the exhibition. Made locally in Geelong, Designer Jet® carpet is highly bespoke, and takes any striking pattern, graphic or image and turns it into a carpet, using precision engineering to bring brings artist underfoot. In this instance, the carpet is reminiscent of the natural landscape, a nod to the sustainability motif that underpins the exhibition. Similarly to their collaboration with Dowel Jones at the National Wool Museum in 2024, GH Commercial have used the carpet to complement the bold visual language of the garments, harnessing the infinite flexibility of the carpet’s design spectrum to create something wholly unique. Evocative in texture and finish, the carpet enhances the visitor experience, offering a whole-of-space curation that guides them through the exhibition.

“We’ve created this incredible green carpet that references the waterways but also seen to reflect a forest floor, says Josephine Rout, Senior Curator, National Wool Museum. “Having the carpet now installed, it’s really exceeded my expectations, it’s utterly transformed this gallery and really elevated this exhibition.” – Josephine Rout, Senior Curator, National Wool Museum.

A future informed by the past

The finalists of this year’s We the Makers represent a powerful blend of creativity, innovation, and a deep commitment to sustainability. This is exemplified even further by the program’s winners, who have artfully woven stories, techniques, and materials together to create an actionable pathway forward for fashion and textiles. From the Designer of the Year winner Shiva Yousefpour (UNBOUND by SHIYO), to the Mayoral Award recipient Isobel Hyland (Pivot City Punk), and Sherry Johnstone (Costal Country) and who was awarded the ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres Innovation Mentorship, Deakin Institute for Frontier Materials, the projects are transformative in both their intent and their end-form.

These inspirational approaches mirror the core ethos of GH Commercial, who put sustainability at the centre of their business and their product library. From responsible manufacturing, to circular thinking, and end-of-life treatment, GH Commercial is continually innovating to reduce their impact and contribute to a more sustainable built environment by perpetually raising the bar on what is possible and what we should all be aspiring towards.  

Supporting a program that champions these same values is both a natural alignment and a meaningful opportunity to elevate purpose-driven design. Diving deeper still, the shared values, and shared history between GH Commercial and the National Wool Museum reveals a path forward for design, where emerging talents can harness the techniques and materials that have stood the test of time to create something truly exceptional and future-focused.

The We the Makers Exhibition is open at the National Wool Museum in Geelong, Victoria, until Sunday 30 November.

GH Commercial
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