Berlin, August 20, 2025: The Fashion Council Germany’s FASHION x CRAFT funding program will be implemented again this year together with The King’s Foundation. The new project supporter is eBay Germany. Together, the project partners have set themselves the goal of supporting young fashion and textile designers by completing tailor-made workshops in the areas of sustainability, craftsmanship and innovation. With 30 years of experience in pre-loved fashion and the circular economy, eBay wants to nurture talent and provide new impetus for a more sustainable fashion industry. With the help of the interdisciplinary program, participants will learn how to make the fashion industry more sustainable and innovative. The five winners were announced in May 2025. During Berlin Fashion Week in July, they presented designs in the Der Berliner Salon as well as in the new RAUM.Berlin exhibition format initiated by the Fashion Council Germany.
As part of the project, the five design talents spent their residency in Highgrove, England, the educational institution of The King’s Foundation. The focus of the stay was particularly on traditional craftsmanship, which they were introduced to in various workshops such as basket weaving, woodworking, weaving techniques, metalwork, natural dyeing techniques, drawing and printing. They gained valuable insights into the connection between traditional crafts and modern practices. A key learning was the development of a reflective way of working, supported by “Group Design” training, to enable them to combine their individual design approaches and inspire them to work together.
The winners then used the newly acquired techniques to develop and implement their own designs and sketches. Together they designed a collective mood board that served as a central design element for the later development of their joint collection. This collection is the final result of this year’s edition. The designers were visited on site by press and industry representatives, including Kirsty Keoghan (GM European Fashion, eBay) and Carlo Bellmann (Strategic Partnership Lead, DE Fashion, eBay). They presented them with initial ideas and drafts and exchanged ideas together to provide inspiring impulses.
The residency in Highgrove was followed by further workshops that took place in August in Berlin in collaboration with the Good Garment Collective as part of their residency in Germany. These focused particularly on collection development and imparted knowledge on production management and sustainable material procurement. In addition to the workshops, the participants will also receive a workplace in their co-working space in Berlin in November, where they can develop their collection. Deadstock fabrics and upcycling materials are used, which are provided by the partners eBay Germany and Zelow, thus enabling a circular approach. The final collection created during the project will be presented as part of Berlin Fashion Week in February 2026.
The participants in the fourth edition of FASHION x CRAFT include Aleksander Kudrischow (HAW HAMBURG), Jon Liesenfeld (AMD), Laura De Sousa (UNIVERSITY OF LISBON), Lennart Bohle (PFORZHEIM UNIVERSITY DESIGN) and Melanie Parzenczewski (HTW BERLIN).