The world’s largest sustainable fashion design competition, the Redress Design Award announces the 2019 cycle semi-finalists. The 30 outstanding designers represent the brightest talent in a growing swell of ambitious young designers working to tackle the environmental challenges of the fashion industry. As the world wakes up to the enormity of fashion’s negative footprint, from carbon emissions, water pollution and chemical use to spiralling over-consumption and waste, the Redress Design Award showcases the critical role designers can play in finding solutions.
Focusing on the need to eliminate textile waste the competition challenges emerging fashion designers and students to explore the circular economy through the core sustainable design techniques of zero-waste, up-cycling and reconstruction. Redress Founder & Board Chair, Dr. Christina Dean noted “If the fashion industry carries on with a business-as-usual linear model, carbon emissions from textile production alone are set to rise by more than 60% by 2030, but these emerging designers give us hope for a future where textile waste is valued, and where responsible design, production and consumption with circularity in mind are the norm.”
For the first time in the competition’s nine-year history menswear designers were included alongside unisex and womenswear designers, expanding the scope of Redress’ global search for talent. Another first for the competition sees the introduction of industry surplus textiles with a surprise selection of Eastman Naia™ sustainable fabrics, which the semi-finalists will be further challenged to incorporate into their main competition collection designs if they reach the final round of the competition.
The 30 semi-finalists now face the next round of assessment by the International Judging Panel of industry experts to decide the final short-list of 10 finalists who will be taking part in an intensive week of sustainable fashion education and design challenges in Hong Kong this September. The climax of the competition will see the finalists showcase their collections during a live Grand Final at Hong Kong’s CENTRESTAGE, where they will vie for First Prize - the opportunity to design a sustainable collection for a brand of JNBY Group, one of China’s leading fashion houses.
With applications from across 6 continents the 2019 cycle received strong interest from China making up 25% of the applications, along with three designers from Redress’ home city of Hong Kong in the semi-finals showing a clear growing interest in sustainable fashion in the region. The competition is also celebrating semi-finalist designers for the first time from Bangladesh, Bulgaria and Hungary.
Ruth Farrell, Global Marketing Director of Eastman, Textile and Redress Design Award judge commented, “It has been very exciting to see talented young designers in the competition living and breathing sustainability, their designs show creative flair and innovative thinking built on a strong foundation of sustainability.”
The 30 Semi-finalists will join the 150 strong global Redress Design Award Alumni Network and benefit from access to multiple professional development opportunities to boost their knowledge and careers. They will also receive a selection of books focused on sustainable design from Prize Sponsor Bloomsbury Publishing.
Voting opens to select the public’s favourite
From now until 10 May 2019, the public can vote for their favourite semi-finalist designer based on their sketches and statements. Find out more about this cycle’s semi-finalists and their inspirational zero-waste, up-cycled and reconstructed designs at www.redressdesignaward.com/semifinalists