Global expansion of Redress Design Award feeds urgent need to embed sustainability into the fashion industry as a economic necessity.

Now holding the eighth competition cycle of the Redress Design Award (previously the EcoChic Design Award), organisers Redress – a Hong Kong environmental NGO committed to reducing textile waste – are as determined as ever to intensify their impact on the fashion industry. In a year which is being marked as a critical tipping point for consumers, designers and brands to incorporate sustainability across the fashion value chain, the 2018 cycle of the world’s largest sustainable design competition has expanded to a truly global search for emerging design talent. Amidst ongoing industry pressures to produce more clothes at less cost, the Redress Design Award continues to shine a light on sustainability, and the growing power of the circular economy, whilst championing emerging talent to fuel this new future for fashion.

With the continued support of Create Hong Kong, who have sponsored the competition since its inception in 2011, the award offers ten finalists the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong in September 2018 to present their innovative waste-reducing collections to a industry audience and vie for First Prize, to design a collection for up-cycled brand, The R Collective, proving to the world that sustainable fashion is not just a trend but a business reality.

Visit www.redressdesignaward.com for full competition details.

Feeding an industry gap

A recent industry report predicts sales across nearly all fashion categories will almost triple between 2016 and 2018. Meanwhile the number of garments produced annually now exceeds 100 billion pieces. With this rapid rise in production and consumption comes a staggering increase in waste, as consumers buy more and more whilst simultaneously disposing of their clothing twice as fast as they did 15 years ago. In Hong Kong alone, approximately 125,195 tonnes of textiles were sent to landfills in 2016. 

Redress Founder, Christina Dean commented, “The fashion world’s ethical barometers are now switched on and we’re seeing an overarching yearning for positive change. Hope is now sewn into the core of fashion. We are now at a critical tipping point to act, especially for emerging designers who are ready to prove to the world that circular fashion can be a beautiful, retail reality.”

Hong Kong designer, Victor Chu, a previous competition winner and one of over 130 fashion game-changers in the growing Redress Design Award Alumni Network, co-designed The R Collective’s inaugural up-cycled collection, which launched in Lane Crawford and Barneys New York. He commented, “I remember being quite shocked as a student when I learned through the Redress Design Award that around 80% of a product’s environmental impact is locked in at the design stage. My experience in the competition and then later joining the design team at The R Collective has shown me how my design decisions can be part of a positive solution from the outset. What’s more, I really believe that there is retail appetite for sustainable fashion in Hong Kong, Asia and the rest of the world!”

The Redress Design Award 2018 is open to emerging designers and students with less than three years’ industry experience. Applications are now being accepted until the closing date on 13 March 2018. Applicants are tasked to design a sustainable collection that re-claims unwanted textiles in unexpected, sourcing 100 percent textile waste for their competition collections. In addition to this, designers must incorporate one or more of the three core sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction in their designs. Joining First Prize with The R Collective, a mentorship with sustainable visionary, Orsola de Castro, books from Bloomsbury Publisher and multiple other career-supporting prizes are on offer. The ten finalists compete to win in Hong Kong in early September 2018 at a live grand final fashion show at the city’s fashion week CENTRESTAGE.

Visit the Redress Design Award website for full prize details.