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This Year's Green Carpet Fashion Awards Turn Social Distancing Into Virtual Wizardry

Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images
Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images

From ELLE

In many ways, we've felt 2020 to have hit like a damp squib, or worse than that, a catastrophe.

Quite apart from the more serious ramifications of a rampaging deadly virus, our more pleasurable pursuits have all but ground to a halt. Dance parties with friends, sharing food, hugs and hand holding have all fallen out of favour. And events like fashion shows and the plethora of glittering soirées that usually make up awards season have all been called into question.

On the one hand, we miss the staples of our favourite times of year, but on the other, it's forced organisers to be inventive, examining the way that things have always been done, in and adapting to our current situation. Necessity is the mother of all invention, after all.

And for something like the Green Carpet Fashion Awards, with sustainability at the core of its message, re-creating their annual event virtually in the year of Covid-19 has the effect of dramatically reducing any trace of the carbon footprint it once had.

Photo credit: Stefania D'Alessandro - Getty Images
Photo credit: Stefania D'Alessandro - Getty Images

As founder and Creative Director of Eco-Age, the sustainability consultancy behind the Green Carpet Challenge, puts it: 'Arundhati Roy referred to this period as a “portal” - a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our old modus operandi. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it. This is the strong message that will emerge from this year’s GCFA. We have been the first to celebrate sustainability and fashion and to shine a light on the disruptors and game changers in our industry. This year we wanted to do the same even in the way the event itself is produced and delivered.'

And with that, the pioneers of a new way of approaching red carpet dressing have become pioneers for a new way of hosting large-scale occasions.

In the main, there will be a film to watch. Themed around 'togetherness' and 'rebirth', Grammy-nominated director Giorgio Testi and Emmy Award winner Pulse Productions have combined cinematic footage with augmented reality and visual FX by Northhouse, to superimpose holograms of your favourite talent and opinion-makers into a powerful storytelling moment.

But not only that, with so many of us gagging for a real red carpet moment and the chance to gaze upon gorgeous dresses and chic styling, the GCFAs 2020 is going to deliver on that promise too. For the occasion, they're launching the first ever digital green carpet, with celebrities gracing the virtual runway in their finery, sharing an exclusive look into their wardrobes and shedding light on the amazing work being done by designers the world over to promote sustainability in fashion.

Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images
Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images

The awards will be broadcast on Sky across all European territories, as well as with other partners in the US and Asia and including a global premiere on YouTube, so you've plenty of ways of catching the show.

This year there will be only five awards with a Chopard statuette award produced in ethical gold, contributing to the green credentials of the event.

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