Shaping the future of fashion

The fashion industry is at a turning point, and the next generation of designers is ready to lead the way. Zalando and the Graduate Fashion Foundation (GFF) have partnered to empower second and third-year fashion students across Europe and the UK to embrace circular design thinking. Today, we are thrilled to announce the shortlisted winners of our Circularity Masterclass competition.

Our shared ambition is simple yet profound: to inspire young talent to create products and concepts that naturally fit into a circular economy. By rethinking how garments are made, used, and ultimately repurposed, these students are designing a more sustainable and inclusive future for fashion.

A deep dive into circular design

The five-lesson programme opened its virtual doors to 30 GFF member universities in the UK and 10 partner universities across Europe. Students were challenged to design three outfits or accessories that actively demonstrated circularity principles. This meant looking beyond aesthetics and considering the entire lifecycle of a product, from raw materials and dyes to finishings and end-of-life processes.

The response was phenomenal. With more than 100 entries submitted, the passion for sustainable innovation was clear. A survey of the participants revealed that 97% found the programme engaging and informative, while 96% felt inspired to continue exploring circular fashion design in their future careers.

Anni Chen, a shortlisted student from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, highlights the transformative nature of the programme.

"Throughout the Circularity Masterclass programme, I discovered how challenging it is to design more sustainable — almost every decision requires taking a more complex, slower path instead of the easiest, cheapest or fastest one," she says. "What I’ve learned is that there is much more to improve in certain systems and that going deeper into these questions is both necessary and motivating."

The road to Graduate Fashion Week

In June 2026, the shortlisted winners will travel to London to present their submissions to an industry judging panel during Graduate Fashion Week. One overall winner will be selected to receive one-to-one mentorship from a circular fashion designer in their home city.

The panel features experts from across the sustainability and fashion landscape, including representatives from ReLondon, WRAP, and Circular Berlin, alongside independent designers and Zalando's own circularity and design specialists.

"At Zalando, we believe that the future of fashion must be both inclusive and more sustainable," says Lara Gesche, Principal Social Impact at Zalando. "Seeing this emerging generation of designers embed sustainability into the very core of their creative process is deeply inspiring. They are not just creating beautiful garments; they are actively designing the solutions our industry needs to thrive tomorrow."

Megan Doyle, Programme Lead for the Circularity Masterclass at the Graduate Fashion Foundation, shares this optimism. She notes that the diverse and thought-provoking submissions prove that the future of fashion looks very bright with this level of talent coming through the pipeline.

Meet the shortlisted designers

We are proud to celebrate the creativity and technical precision of our shortlisted winners:

• Nicole Fedrowicz, Amsterdam Fashion Academy
• Samantha Bronock, Leeds Arts University
• Nicole Ray Kochergin, IED Barcelona
• Gustav Wichmann Thiesgaard, Scandinavian Academy of Fashion Design
• Vega Brooks, Manchester Fashion Institute
• Dominikus Ehrenberger, Business and Law School Berlin
• Mami Hosaka, Marangoni Milan
• Boguslawa Gaworek, Academy of Fine Arts Warsaw
• Anni Chen, University of Applied Arts Vienna
• Lucas Fisher, Norwich University
• Katie Rickett, Northumbria University
• Taelor-Mae McNally, De Montfort University
• Naomi Robinson, University of Lancashire

Looking ahead

The momentum does not stop here. Following the success of this year's programme, the Circularity Masterclass will expand its reach for the 2026/27 academic year. The initiative will welcome a cohort of 15 partner universities alongside all UK GFF member universities, giving even more students the opportunity to shape a more responsible fashion industry.

We look forward to welcoming the finalists to London this June and witnessing the innovative ideas that will help define the next chapter of fashion.