The Fabricant has announced the winners of Design Forward 2026, an international competition for emerging designers in the fashion industry working with AI design tools. The 2026 edition was the first edition of the competition. An international jury selected ten winners from a selection of fifteen finalists.
The first prize went to Reborn Myths by Tiia Jaakkola from Kolding School of Design in Denmark. The collection combines post-consumer denim waste with Finnish folklore and contemporary streetwear.
Second place went to Invisible Architecture by Akriti Awatwani of Instituto Marangoni in Italy.
Andre Fonseca Vieira from the University of Lisbon finished third with the ‘Streetwear Preppy’ collection.
The winner of Design Forward 2026 receives six months of free access to The Fabricant platform, an interview in the Digital Weave videocast, a mention on the company’s social media channels and a certificate of participation. Numbers two and three receive three and one month of free access to the platform respectively. The top ten finalists will also each receive 150 credits for The Fabricant’s platform.
Entries from 21 countries
Designers from 21 countries and 45 design schools worldwide participated in the competition. Finalists came from Denmark, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil, India and Malaysia, among others.
According to Adriana Pereira, co-founder of The Fabricant, the competition shows how AI gives designers worldwide access to the same creative tools, regardless of their location.
AI as a tool, not a replacement
During the judging, the role of AI was central: does technology mainly serve to create new ideas or renew existing concepts? According to the jury, the entries were particularly successful in which the personal signature of the designer remained visible and AI was used as a supporting tool.
The jury included representatives from The Fabricant, Vice Media, Bestseller, Fashion for Good, Vivienne Westwood and FashionUnited.
