APPLICATIONS OPEN - Vogue Innovation Prize with Mentorship from Tech Powered Luxury Founder, Ashley McDonnell 🚀
This year’s winner takes home $20,000, alongside a complimentary 4-night stay at the Metropole Hotel in Monaco and much more ✨
Hello Tech Powered Luxury listener, and now reader!
🎙️ Today, we’re announcing the Vogue Innovation Prize, now open for applications.
🌟 Are you new here? Welcome to our amazing community - keep reading to discover everything about Tech Powered Luxury, our Community Rewards and how this newsletter came to life.
💎 I’m Laoise O’Connell and I’m very excited to welcome you to today’s edition!
For the fifth edition of the Vogue Singapore Innovation Prize, the Vogue Singapore Foundation partners up once again with BMW Group Asia.
In 2021, the inaugural iteration of the Innovation Prize saw Singaporean fashion designer Claudia Poh take home the winning prize with her adaptive fashion label, Wearable. The following year, Adrian Furstenburg and Viknish Krishnan-Kutty’s ProjectEx pioneered the cultivation of lab-grown exotic skins in response to the fashion industry’s demand for rare leathers. Then, research and development company COzTERRA won in 2023, with its state-of-the-art solutions to combat climate change through enabling individuals to become carbon capture agents. Lastly, Hong Kong-based smart wardrobe service PAKT emerged victorious last year, with its state-of-the-art storage and optimisation functions that looked to revolutionise wardrobe organisation and management.
Returning for its fifth iteration, Vogue Singapore partners up once again with luxury automobiles and motorcycles manufacturer BMW. With 30 global production sites and a sprawling network that spans over 140 countries, BMW is a pioneer in next-generation innovations and is constantly paving the way for a future that is uncompromisingly electric, digital, and circular.
Who can apply for the Vogue Singapore x BMW Innovation Prize?
Applicable fashion or beauty businesses may fall under one or more of the following categories:
Businesses that champion sustainability and drive towards a circular economy
Businesses that employ technology or innovations in new and novel ways
Businesses that re-think current models, systems or products to better serve our society and planet
If your business has a footprint in ASEAN and falls under one or more of the three mentioned categories, you are eligible to apply. If you are a trailblazing fashion or beauty entrepreneur who is driven by problem-solving, revolutionary technology or environmental responsibility and with interests across accessible design, eco-sustainability, digital fashion and more, this is for you.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a two day bootcamp with global industry figures
All shortlisted applicants will be invited to participate in a two-day bootcamp led by global laureate speakers, which include Corey Moran, Head of Industry, Fashion and Luxury at Google, Annie Lindmark, Program Director Innovation at the H&M Foundation and many others. This year, Vogue Singapore is partnered with Brinc, a global leader in venture acceleration with over 260 companies in its portfolio. Currently operating over 15 programs across seven countries, Brinc is focused on supporting startups in climate tech, food tech, blockchain, IOT, AI and Web3. Brinc will provide tailored support in fundraising, growth and commercialisation strategy to startups participating in the bootcamp.
Following the bootcamp, 10 shortlisted businesses will be selected to progress into a 3-week mentorship period, with tailored support provided by Brinc, and which will culminate in a pitch day that brings together leading investors across the industry. Three finalists will then present their business plan to an international VIP Jury who will be judging on use of innovation, product, design and execution, sustainability and the business and marketing plan to ensure scalability. This year’s jury members consists of—but are not limited to—Publisher-at-Large of Vogue Singapore Bettina von Schlippe, Publisher of Vogue Singapore Natasha Damodaran, Founder of Trinity Asia Alexis Bonhomme and Vice President of New Business Innovation at Condé Nast Ciara Byrne.
Until next time,
Laoise 🖤
🫶🏽 Our Partner This Season: Azure Communications
This season’s sponsor of the Tech Powered Luxury podcast is Azure Communications, and we’re thrilled to continue our partnership with them. For quite some time now, Azure has been our go-to provider for all things print and marketing. Whether it’s branded materials for our content, from print and direct mail to event invitations, they’ve been behind the scenes making it all happen.
If you’re looking for top-tier branded collateral, print services, or marketing support, we highly recommend checking them out.
You can visit them at www.azurecomm.ie or follow them on Instagram at @AzureCommunications.
🎁 Community Rewards
Your skin deserves a treat! 💆♀️ Seoulista Beauty® is giving 20% off to our subscribers through the code TPL20* on checkout. Known for its dermatologist-tested bio-cellulose facials, the products infuse potent serums deep into the skin, delivering salon-grade results in 20 minutes.
*TPL20 is a one-time-use code, with no minimum order purchase and valid across the range on seoulistabeauty.com. Cannot be combined with other discounts.
💫 Who are we and what led us here today?
🎙️ Launched as a podcast on November 1st 2022 by Ashley McDonnell, Tech Powered Luxury has since nurtured a vibrant community of experts passionate about the evolving synergy between technology and luxury. We have reached over 20 million people through the podcast, social platforms and media, and have hit +500K downloads.
🪄 This season, our weekly newsletter will be curated by Laoise O’Connell, a luxury marketeer with experience in client relations and communications at fashion houses and global brands Chanel and Givenchy in Paris. Laoise has been a proud contributor to Tech Powered Luxury since Season 1 and we are excited to have her guide our content for the newsletter this season and look forward to the insights she will bring. 💎