Kering Generation Award: Securing a Sustainable Future for the Luxury Industry
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June 30, 2025
Kering Generation Award: Securing a Sustainable Future for the Luxury Industry
2025 marks the fourth edition of the Kering Generation Award in China and the expansion of the initiative into Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the global jewelry sector. Focusing on startups, the awards are an important, forward-looking part of the Group’s business strategy. Discover the story behind the Kering Generation Award and how it supports the Group’s decade-long pronounced commitment to sustainability.
It is Monday, October 14, 2019, in Shanghai, as Kering Chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault steps onto stage to present the first Kering Generation Award. Under the spotlights are three Chinese start-ups, awarded for their innovations in addressing sustainability challenges in the textile value chain. The moment was also an important step for the Group itself towards its goal of ensuring sustainable innovation is embedded and accelerated in the luxury fashion industry.
“With the Kering Generation Award, we want to encourage cross-industry collaboration and to empower the next generation to find and scale innovations for sustainable and ethical fashion”
Six years later, the award acts as a growth catalyst for the next generation of sustainable luxury, identifying, rewarding, and supporting startups around the world, while promoting innovation and creativity and expanding Kering’s ideals.
“We want to support startups that can bring about positive environmental and social impact through alternative raw materials, the green supply chain, retail, and the circular economy,” explains Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering’s Chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer. “This will benefit not just the Group, but the entire luxury industry.”
Getting started
Discussions between Marie-Claire Daveu and François-Henri Pinault focused on shaping and securing a sustainable future of the luxury fashion and beauty sector, gave birth to the Kering Generation Award. Asia, an important luxury hub for both businesses and consumers and a key region for innovation, was the logical place to start.
Under Daveu’s leadership, the competition identifies startups with innovative ideas and strong potential. A jury composed of industry leaders, local Kering CEOs, and an advisory board evaluates participants through interviews and presentations. Approximately two months are allocated to select judges and participants, with the awards presented one year later during the Shanghai Fashion Week.
Three winners are chosen based on concrete criteria for their projects: innovation, potential for commercial success, technical maturity, relevance to fashion and beauty, and social and environmental impact. Each winner spends a week in Paris with Kering experts, visiting the Houses, and pitching potential funding sources. In addition, the first-place winner receives a €100,000 project grant.
The curtain rises
The Kering Generation Award was launched in partnership with the Plug and Play Fashion Accelerator - itself a startup founded in Silicon Valley in 2016, now a well-established operator of four innovation centers in China: Beijing (headquarters), Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen.
The first edition’s three winners were selected from more than 50 applicants: Melephant, in first place, provides natural dyes from organic waste in a circular, no-waste system. Second place Heyuan makes innovative water treatment technology for printing and dyeing. Third place FeiLiu Tech focuses on AI-adapted supply chain optimization that helps avoid over-production (Check out all the winners since the creation of the Kering Generation Award here).
The award ceremony has become a Shanghai Fashion Week staple, with its fourth awards ceremony taking place this year (2025). The award has now been launched in Japan (2024) and Saudi Arabia (2024). A separate Kering Generation Award for the jewelry industry was introduced in 2024.
Regional competitions
Each competition has its own theme, based on local concerns that can be solved developing the region’s strengths. Following the award’s debut focusing on Supply Chain issues, the Kering Generation Award in China has considered “Biodiversity and Beyond,” focusing on the development of green innovation and the conservation and restoration of biodiversity in the fashion industry (2021); "Coming Full Circle," evaluating how circularity is accomplished through the five Rs: redesign, reuse, recycle, regenerate, and recognition (2023), and “Pioneering Water Positive Impact in Luxury” (2025).
“This topic of ‘water’ will appeal to a broad audience,” opines Anne-Gaëlle Lamort, Kering Sustainability Innovation Lead, and coordinator of the Kering Generation Award. “It involves cross-collaboration from regions or provinces, for example, who supply that resource.”
In Japan, the debut theme of “Sustainable Fashion and Beauty" addressed the key phases of product lifetime: raw materials, product manufacturing, retailing, and consumer engagement. Kering partnered with global innovation platform CIC Tokyo; nearly 130 companies applied.
In Saudi Arabia, Kering worked closely with the Saudi Fashion Commission, attracting more than 500 applicants working on customer engagement, the circular economy, and water protection. “Saudi Arabia is in the nascent stages of developing a luxury fashion sector of its own,” points out Anne-Gaëlle.” Their ambitions for this sector are exceptionally high, and we are helping them develop it along sustainable guidelines, to plant the seeds of sustainable production in the region.”
Jewelry – a world of its own
Sustainability is no stranger to Kering’s Jewelry Houses. In 2022, for instance, Boucheron unveiled an Innovative Capsule using Cofalit®, the most recycled matter in existence, obtained by upcycling industrial waste through a unique vitrification process.
The next logical step came two years later. In 2024, in partnership with CIBJO - the World Jewellery Confederation – and with the scientific coordination of Poli.Design - Politecnico di Milano, the Group launched the Kering Generation X Jewelry award.
(*Cofalit® is a brand of the Europlasma Group.)
“Unlike the previous editions, the jewelry award is not location-specific, but rather covers the industry globally, focusing on finding sustainable ways of working with materials such as gold and precious stones,” explains Francesca Manfredi, Head of Kering's Jewelry Innovation Lab. “But while the scope of the award is different, the objectives are the same: to recognize and cultivate visionary talent demonstrating excellence in sustainable design, to build an international community of young students and start-ups committed to transforming the industry, and ultimately to champion creativity and responsible innovation that can transform the sector.”
Participants in the Kering Generation Award X Jewelry – 10 universities and academies specializing in jewelry and sustainability, as well as established start-ups in the sector – were asked to design jewelry that transforms waste into something valuable. Winners were honored in June 2025 in Las Vegas at JCK, one of the world’s largest jewelry industry trade events.
Securing tomorrow’s luxury
The Kering Generation Awards recognize sustainability efforts, but they also provide business opportunities, creating an arena in which the “old guard” and “young disruptors” come together in cross-collaboration.
“Kering offers its insights and experiences, and the award winners offer concepts that the Houses could implement into their own brands,” points out Anne-Gaëlle. “It’s a real opportunity for business development.”
“We’re pleased and encouraged by the number of entrepreneurs and startups who apply for the Kering Generation Award,” says Marie-Claire. “And we will continue to develop the program – searching for new themes to investigate, for example – and share our results with other companies. It’s a big step in transforming the entire industry.”