Redress Design Award 2020 semi-finalists announced, opening doors for new talents striving to change the fashion industry

The Redress Design Award announces the semi-finalists in its 10th anniversary cycle, hand-selected from entries from across the globe by expert regional judges. The 32 talented designers – separated, for the first time into menswear and womenswear categories – represent the future of the fashion industry, ready to apply their skills to solving the fashion crisis and shifting the $2.4 billion(1) industry towards a circular economy. The Redress Design Award provides emerging designers with a platform to demonstrate solutions to tackle the fashion crisis with a focus on textile waste. Public voting has opened for the People’s Choice award with one out of the 32 rising sustainable designers to be presented with this accolade.

Christina Dean, Redress Founder and Board Chair, says, “Fashion needs to wake up, reinvent itself and get with the times. COVID-19 has shattered the fashion system, from broken supply chains to near flat-lining of consumption, and we are now forced to reevaluate our consumption desires, which will shake up the fashion of tomorrow. Fashion's global waste crisis, and its effect on climate impact, will live on way beyond this COVID-19 crisis and so it is vital that emerging designers continue fighting for a better fashion world.” The 10th Redress Design Award received applicants from 49 regions, with selected semi-finalists from new regions including Peru, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Albania. Hong Kong, Mainland China, India, and the United Kingdom are also prominently represented. A heightened understanding of sustainability issues and sustainable design techniques was showcased by the emerging designers, underpinning Redress’ educational mission to educate the future of the fashion industry around circular design strategies.

Next, the 32 semi-finalists will face the international judging panel for a chance to win a spot among the 10 finalists and be brought on an all-expenses-paid educational trip to Hong Kong. There, the finalists will undergo a series of educational challenges and experiences to develop their skills as sustainable designers and, finally, showcase their Redress Design Award collection live to a career-changing audience of prominent industry experts, VIPs, and media at the Grand Final Show, where the 2020 winner will be announced.

Competition judge, Kevin Bailey, Executive Vice President and Group President, VF Corporation, Asia-Pacific, says, “I am honoured to join the Redress Design Award as a judge for its 10th cycle. Circular business is still in its infancy across the industry, but by daring to reimagine and reinvent ourselves, and see our responsibility to leverage our scale for good, VF aims to inspire designers as together we champion the move toward a circular economy. Our hope is this Award equips emerging designers with the skills and knowledge needed to turn the fashion industry on its head, leading us towards a more sustainable future.”

This year’s semi-finalists will receive promotion across all Redress global-reaching marketing channels, plus a selection of fashion books from Bloomsbury Publishing to support their development in designing for circularity. They will also join the now 218-strong Redress Design Award Alumni Network, which provides support to designers as they develop their sustainable fashion careers.

The coveted People’s Choice award is now open for public voting until 7 May 2020. After impressing the global public to outshine their 31 semi-finalist competitors, the People’s Choice winner will take home a state-of-the-art JUKI overlock sewing machine, and a copy of the Bloomsbury title, The Dangers of Fashion – Towards Ethical and Sustainable Solutions. Find out more about this cycle’s semi-finalists and vote for your favourite at www.redressdesignaward.com/semifinalists

The Redress Design Award 2020 Semi-finalists are:

Womenswear category in partnership with the R Collective:

• Ritvika Bansal, India
• Saskia Baur-Schmid, Australia
• Fiona Carroll, Ireland
• Bianca Ferri Marini, Italy
• Juliana Garcia Bello, The Netherlands
• Aarushi Kilawat, India
• Laura Krause, Albania
• Grace Lant, Hong Kong
• Mei Chin, Mainland China
• Maikhanh Nguyen, Vietnam
• Prashasti Roy, India
• Elin Thomas, United Kingdom
• Tong Jianlong, Mainland China
• Ruth Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka
• Amy White, United Kingdom
• Isabel Annaiss Yucra Mancilla, Peru

Menswear category in partnership with CF Corporation:

• Nicole Kim Ang, Philippines
• Marie-Eve Aubry, Canada
• Beatrice Bocconi, Italy
• Jann Christian Bungcaras, Philippines
• Emily Dennis, United Kingdom
• Geraldo Fortuin, South Africa
• Ryan Jackson, South Africa
• Inhwa Jin, Korea
• Yeseul Kim, Singapore
• Isabella Kostrzewa, USA
• Ngoh Ha Thu Le, Vietnam
• Lady Ann Pachas Tito, Peru
• Tang Tsz Ho, Hong Kong
• Gönül Yigit, The Netherlands
• Yip Yeung Yeung, Hong Kong
• Wei Jia, Mainland China