Amsterdam label MARTAN has won the Grand Prize in the Visa Young Creators: Recycle the Runway programme, announced this week during the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen. The initiative, organised by Global Fashion Agenda and Visa, supports emerging fashion businesses working with circular models.
MARTAN was selected from a wider group of European applicants and named overall winner after first being recognised as one of five Prize Winners in April. According to organisers, the jury assessed participants on design quality, circular business models and potential to scale.
The award includes €20,000 in funding, mentorship, industry visibility and participation in a co-creation project with textile recycling specialist Re&Up.
For Amsterdam Fashion Week audiences, MARTAN is a familiar name. The label has presented regularly on the AFW schedule, often through concept-led installations and presentations that blur the line between fashion show and immersive environment. During the latest edition, MARTAN staged its first Amsterdam flagship pop-up inside the historic NACO Huisje, combining retail, archive pieces and a new capsule collection in collaboration with Het Scheepvaartmuseum.
The Copenhagen prize marks another step in the brand’s trajectory, placing an Amsterdam-grown label in the spotlight of one of fashion’s leading sustainability forums. At a time when circularity is increasingly shifting from niche conversation to business priority, MARTAN’s win signals growing recognition for designers able to pair environmental thinking with a clear creative proposition.
That trajectory closely mirrors AFW’s own evolving priorities. In 2025, Amsterdam Fashion Week entered a partnership with Copenhagen Fashion Week to begin implementing its Sustainability Requirements framework. The pilot phase reviews participating brands against minimum standards ahead of a full rollout from 2026.
Against that backdrop, MARTAN’s international recognition feels less like an isolated success story and more like evidence of a maturing ecosystem. A brand long championed on Amsterdam’s fashion stage has now been recognised on one of the industry’s leading global sustainability platforms.
For AFW, MARTAN’s win is a proud moment, highlighting how labels that have grown within its programme are gaining increasing recognition on the international stage.
