Redress Design Award 2020 opened for 10th cycle

28 Jan '20

3 min read

Pic: Redress Design Award

Environmental NGO Redress has opened the Redress Design Award 2020, the 10th cycle of the largest sustainable fashion design competition along with its new Circular Fashion Design Pathway Course, with lead sponsorship from Hong Kong government agency, Create Hong Kong. For the first time, there are two prize categories, menswear and womenswear.

Redress aims to fight fashion’s alarming - and worsening - waste rates by educating fashion designers globally about waste-reducing circular design techniques. For the first time, the competition offers two prize categories, menswear and womenswear, with career-changing winners’ prizes provided by The R Collective and VF Corporation.

Redress founder and board chair, Christina Dean said, “We don’t have a moment to lose. The fashion industry is screaming for change. Shockingly, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or incinerated every second - and this is set to worsen. Globally, we must galvanise designers to act urgently to redesign the future of fashion.”

Redress’ new Circular Fashion Design Pathway Course provides deeper knowledge for competition applicants, who otherwise have varying and largely inadequate access to much-needed sustainable design education. Introduced in response to the industry’s need for skilled, waste-reducing designers, the four-week online course, delivered by global experts, launches on February 6 and covers fibres and new technologies, design for low waste and marketability and upscalability.

To highlight the competition’s 10-cycle legacy and the global importance of the sustainable design movement, Redress showcased designs by all nine previous competition cycle winners, including Kévin Germanier (France), Pat Guzik (Poland), Janko Lam (Hong Kong) and Tess Whitfort (Australia), in a Retrospective Exhibition at Hong Kong’s The Mills, a textile industry business incubator, experiential retail and a non-profit cultural institution.

The 2020 competition cycle also celebrates its first ever Redress All Star Design Competition, where alumni, who are previous finalists and semi-finalists will compete for a prize to propel their own sustainable brands.

Redress Design Award 2014/15 Winner Kévin Germanier, whose sustainable brand Germanier is worn by A-list celebrities including Lady Gaga, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Swift and K-pop star, Sunmi, joins the International Judging Panel, alongside Orsola de Castro, a renowned sustainable fashion designer, and Susie Lau, fashion writer and editor.

Germanier said: “I am happy to join the 10th cycle as a judge. As a Redress Design Award alumnus, I really understand the positive impact the competition had on my career, especially the recognition and exposure I received as a designer. I want to bring more emerging sustainable designers to the forefront.”

The Redress Design Award 2020 Prizes comprise Womenswear Prize, Menswear Prize, and Runner-UP Prize.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SV)